Voices from the Grave Ed Moloney Was Born in England. a Former Northern Ireland Editor of the Irish Times and Sunday Tribune, He
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Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page i Voices from the Grave Ed Moloney was born in England. A former Northern Ireland editor of the Irish Times and Sunday Tribune, he was named Irish Journalist of the Year in 1999. Apart from A Secret History of the IRA, he has written a biography of Ian Paisley. He now lives and works in New York. Professor Thomas E. Hachey and Dr Robert K. O’Neill are the General Editors of the Boston College Center for Irish Programs IRA/UVF project, of which Voices from the Grave is the inaugural publication. Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page ii by the same author the secret history of the ira paisley: from demagogue to democrat? Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page iii ed moloney VOICES FROM THE GRAVE Two Men’s War in Ireland The publishers would like to acknowledge that any interview material used in Voices from the Grave has been provided by kind permission from the Boston College Center for Irish Programs IRA/UVF project that is archived at the Burns Library on the Chestnut Hill campus of Boston College. Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page iv First published in 2010 by Faber and Faber Limited Bloomsbury House 74–77 Great Russell Street London wc1b 3da Typeset by Faber and Faber Limited Printed in England by CPI Mackays, Chatham All rights reserved © Ed Moloney, 2010 Interview material © Trustees of Boston College, 2010 The right of Ed Moloney to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Use of interview material by kind permission of The Boston College Irish Center’s Oral History Archive. Maps by András Bereznay; www. historyonmaps.com This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library isbn 978–0–571–25168–1 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page v This book is dedicated to all those who shared their memories with the researchers from Boston College. Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page vi Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page vii contents Illustrations ix Maps xi Preface 1 Introduction 5 brendan hughes 11 david ervine 299 Chronology 481 Notes 491 Bibliography 496 Index 499 Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page viii Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page ix illustrations Catholic families in Belfast flee their burning homes in the wake of Loyalist attacks. © Belfast Telegraph Curfew on the Falls Road, 1970. © Victor Patterson Seamus Twomey confronts British troops at Lenadoon. © Victor Patterson British troops patrol Divis Street. © Belfast Telegraph ‘Bloody Friday’, July 1972. © Pacemaker Press International Jean McConville with three of her children. © Pacemaker Press International Gerry Adams photographed by British military intelligence after his arrest. © Victor Patterson Ivor Bell photographed by British military intelligence after his arrest. © Victor Patterson Brendan Hughes photographed by British military intelligence after his arrest. © Victor Patterson Mass card for Paddy Joe Crawford. Reproduced with kind permission of Gerry McCann. Robert ‘Basher’ Bates, one of the Shankill Butchers. © Pacemaker Press International Brendan Hughes in prison hospital during the failed 1980 hunger strike. © Pacemaker Press International Brendan Hughes comforts a woman wounded in the Milltown cemetery attack, 1988. © Derek Speirs ix Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page x illustrations Brendan Hughes in his Divis Tower flat with Anthony McIntyre. © Kelvin Boyes Gerry Adams carrying Brendan Hughes’s coffin. © Kelvin Boyes McGurk’s Bar, December 1971. © Belfast Telegraph Explosion on Talbot Street in Dublin, 1974. © Belfast Telegraph David Ervine poses with Gusty Spence and fellow UVF internees in Long Kesh. From the Bobbie Hanvey Photographic Archives, John J. Burns Library, Boston College, presented to Hanvey by Gusty Spence, and used with the permission of Gusty Spence, though photographer uncertain. Gusty Spence reviewing UVF internees on parade in Long Kesh. From the Bobbie Hanvey Photographic Archives, John J. Burns Library, Boston College, presented to Hanvey by Gusty Spence, and used with the permission of Gusty Spence, though photographer uncertain. Gusty Spence with ‘Buck Alec’ Robinson. From the Bobbie Hanvey Photographic Archives, John J. Burns Library, Boston College, presented to Hanvey by Gusty Spence, and used with the permission of Gusty Spence, though photographer uncertain. David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson after their election to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998. © Pacemaker Press International Gerry Adams comforts David Ervine’s widow, Jeanette. © Kelvin Boyes x Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page xi Map of Northern Ireland showing some of the places referred to in the book xi Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page xii Map of Belfast showing some of the places referred to in the book xii Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page xiii Map of the Lower Falls Road area, c. 1969, showing some of the places referred to in the book xiii Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page xiv Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page 1 preface This book represents the inaugural volume of a planned series of publications drawn from the Boston College Oral History Archive on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The transcripts of interviews with Irish Republican Army and Ulster Volunteer Force veterans, most of whom were operationally active, are housed at the University’s Burns Library and are subject to prescriptive limitations govern- ing access. Boston College is contractually committed to sequester ing the taped transcriptions unless otherwise given a full release, in writing, by the interviewees, or until the demise of the latter. With the production of this initial book in the projected series, the General Editors wish to acknowledge the tireless and fruitful work of the project coordinator, Ed Moloney, whose personal con- tacts, professional skills, and established reputation as an accom- plished journalist and historian were an incalculable asset in this undertaking. Profound thanks are also owed to Anthony McIntyre and Wilson McArthur, formerly activists from opposing sides who each took degrees at Queen’s University, Belfast, and whose con- tacts among IRA and UVF paramilitary veterans helped make this oral history a reality. Paul Bew, politics professor and senior political adviser to a Northern Ireland first minister, together with two historians who remain anonymous, assisted in an assessment of the information contained in the recorded interviews. Lord Bew strongly encour- aged Boston College to document and archive the stories of para- militaries who fought on both sides of that sectarian divide, known more popularly as the Troubles, because it was such a natural fit. Boston College has had a long interest in Ireland and offered a welcoming and neutral venue in which participants felt a sense of security and confidentiality that made it possible for them to be 1 Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page 2 voices from the grave candid and forthcoming. What Bew perceived as the real value of the IRA/UVF accounts was in what they revealed about the motives and mind sets of participants in the conflict, a resource of inesti - mable value for future studies attempting better to understand the phenomenology of societal violence. Ed Moloney’s succinct and instructive introduction further underscores the scope and significance of the extraordinary archive on which this seminal account is based. What may not be as readily apparent to many people is why Boston College was seen as a familiar and trusted institution by all parties participating in this programme. Not only has the Irish Studies Faculty participated in faculty exchanges and appointments at Ulster universities over the past two decades, with professors from those institutions also serving as visiting scholars at Boston College; the University awarded an honorary degree to Irish nationalist leader John Hume of the Social Democratic Labour Party in 1995 and to British Unionist David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party in 1999. Moreover, for a period of some twelve years the Irish Institute at Boston College has provided educational seminars for public officials, business leaders, policing authorities, etc., under a pro- gramme sponsored by the United States Congress, as a part of its effort to promote peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Under the aegis of the Department of State, the Irish Institute has hosted seminars both at Boston College and at best-practice professional counterparts throughout the United States. The Irish participants come from the Republic and Northern Ireland, including some from both sectarian communities in the North. More than eight hundred people from various professions in Ireland have participated to date, and the seminars, especially those on community policing, cultural diversity and local-government management, have nurtured networking contacts among formerly adversarial groups in Northern Ireland who now perceive Boston College as their enabler. It is the Burns Library, however, arguably the crown jewel of the Boston College Centre for Irish Programmes, that provides the 2 Voices prelims:Layout 1 3/12/09 11:52 Page 3 Preface ideal repository for this unique archive. The extensive holdings of the Burns have long attracted researchers from all over the globe, including many of the most distinguished chair-holders through- out Britain and Ireland.