From: holohan@mark.enet.dec.com (Mark Holohan)
Subject: Speech by Martin Finucane
Reply-To: holohan@mark.enet.dec.com (Mark Holohan)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 17:32:03 GMT



          Speach made by Martin Finucane:
              The myth of tit for tat

Tonight I intend to show that such a thing as tit-for-tat killings does
not exist.  The term is consistently used to describe the murder of the
nationalist or Catholic people by Loyalist death squads and equally to
describe the IRA killings of British soldiers, RUC personnel, UDR men
and other agents of the British state in Ireland.  I hope to show that
the terrorising of the nationalist community is part of the British
government's strategy to defeat the IRA, by whittling away at the IRA's
crucual base of support.  I want to dispel the myth that an
inter-communal war is raging in Ireland, a myth that has been
deliberately propagated by the British government with the help of the
media and other agencies.
In the Six Counties sectarianism remains part and parcel of everyday
life.  In the past 22 years very little has changed on this front.
There is still widespread discrimination against Catholics in the
workplace, and people are being burnt out of their homes.  As recently
as two weeks ago a Catholic woman and her son died at the hands of
Loyalist petrol bombers, solely because of their religion.  The family
had been continuously intimidated.  Just before the fatal attack they
had the outside walls of their house daubed with paint with such slogans
as "Fenian scum get out' and 'You're next'.
This is only the tip of the iceberg.  Many more attacks on Catholic
homes are not reported in the media simply because they failed to injure
or kill and are therefore not newsworthy enough.  This is also true of
the numerous failed murder bids on Catholics.  We generally only hear of
the attacks that succeed.  Recently, more and more of these attacks have
resulted in deaths.  This year already, 40 people have been murdered by
Loyalist, and that is not counting nationalists who have been murdered
by the so-called security forces.
In order to really dispel the myth of tit for tat you only have to look
at the killings themselves.  On 28 September, Lary Murchan a Catholic
newsagent was shot dead by Loyalist; on 29 September, Catholic student
Kevin McGovern was murdered by the RUC; on October, Pearse McKenna, a
Catholic trade unionist, was shot and wounded by Loyalist; on 11 October
Karl Hegney was murdered as he walked home; on 13 October, a young
Catholic man was abducted by Loyalist and beaten with breeze-blocks; on
14 October, a Catholic taxi driver, Hugh Conlon, was shot dead.  The
same night Brian McCabe, a Catholic man, was found shot in the head.  It
was later learned that he had been interrogated by Loyalists for three
days.  Brian died in the hospital.  Also that same night a Catholic
working in a garage in Andersonstown escaped death when fired upon. On
15 October John McGuigan was shot dead by Loyalist gunmen where he
worked, in a timber yard on the Ravenshill Road.  John too was a
Catholic.
The facts speak for themselves.  The sheer volume of attacks on
nationalists compared to the nature of IRA operations show that this
sectarian conflict is one-sided, and on its own is enough to dispel the
myth that an inter-communal war is in progress.
But what is the British government's role in all this?  What do they
have to gain from the slaughter of nationalists? Why do they want the
two main religious communities at each others' throats?
In a nutshell, the Brits want to defeat the IRA.  They know that they
cannot do this militarily.  They refuse to try a political solution, in
that they refuse to talk to Sinn Fein.  Instead they have employed
psychological warfare tactics to complement their military strategy.
Their aim is to discredit and isolate the Irish resistance movement and
to convince international public opinion that British 'peace-keeping'
operations are justifiable.  As most of you will know, my own family has
had first-hand experience of this strategy, sanctioned and carried out
by the British and their agents provocateurs.  My brother Pat was shot
dead on 12 February 1989 in front of his wife and three children while
sitting down for their evening meal.  He was shot by the UFF.
When the front door was smashed in Pat jumped up and saw a masked gunman
coming towards the kitchen.  He was instantly fired on and was shot
twice in the stomach.  His wife pressed an alarm button in the house but
it failed to go off.  The kids hid for cover under the kitchen table.
Pat was lying helpless on the kitchen floor when one of the gunmen
smashed into the kitchen, stood over Pat and fired slowly and
deliberately into Pat's head and neck.  He fired another twelve shots
from a range of 15 inches and fled, leaving Pat dead on the floor.  His
wife was also shot in the ankle.
Pat didn't think his life was in imminent danger, although he was
concerned because of his high profile in the media and because of a
statement made by Douglas Hogg in the house of commons.  Hogg claimed
that he thought 'some solicitors in Northern Ireland were unduly
sympathetic to the IRA'. Pat was working on a number of controversial
cases at the time of his murder.  The 1982 killings of Toman, Burns,
McKerr; the Hayshed killings; the two corporals case; and a case
challenging censorship.
I believe that Pat was set up by the RUC and the British government, at
the highest level.  A few years before Pat was killed RUC detectives in
Castlereagh [interrogation centre] were making derogatory remarks about
him to his clients.  A year before his death these remarks became more
serious.  A number of clients had been told at Castlereagh by the RUC
that Finucane would be killed.  Several death threats were also made.
These detectives even suggested to Loyalist suspects that they should
murder Pat because he was a threat: too successful.  Hogg's statement in
the house of commons, a month before Pat was murdered, I believe must
surely have been sanctioned at the highest level.  There is no way he
could have made such a statement without approval from someone in a
position of authority.
The gun that killed Pat was stolen by a UDR sergeant from a UDR base and
handed over to the UFF.  Fourteen Loyalists were questioned about Pat's
murder and the RUC stated that they believed the killers were among
those people, only they had not sufficient evidence to make a charge.  I
would like to know if any of these Loyalists were the ones whom the RUC
asked to murder Pat.
It has also transpired that Brian Nelson, a Loyalist arrested during the
Stevens investigation, was the chief intelligence officer for the UDA.
The UDA has close links with the UFF.  Nelson was also a British
intelligence agent for over 10 years.  Furthermore, the Stevens team
revealed that Nelson knew that Pat was to be shot and that he had been
providing intelligence that led to Pat's death.
Due to Nelson's position within the UDA and his role in British
intelligence, it seems obvious to me that the British knew Pat was to be
murdered.  His success rate in the courts, and the nature of the cases
he was currently working on, probably led to the decision to kill him.
Pat's death was a devastating blow to me and I don't think I will ever
come to terms with it.  When I first heard the news that he was dead I
was home watching TV.  The phone rang and I was told that my brother Pat
had been murdered.  My eyes flooded with tears and it was extremely
difficult to deal with.  I then had the most difficult job of my whole
life, to tell someone that their son had just been murdered.
My mother was visiting neighbours at the time and the minute that I
walked through the door she knew that one of her sons had been hurt.  I
had to bear-hug her for she had lost control of her emotions and we just
held each other and cried.  Our neighbours also knew Pat for we had all
lived near to each other all of our lives.  It was a house full of
tears.  I then had to inform my sister who lives outside Ireland, and my
brother Dermot who was in Portlaoise jail facing extradition.  He had
already heard of Pat's death while alone in his cell, he had heard it on
the radio.  The Irish authorities refused Dermot compassionate bail to
be with his family.
The suffering of my family is no different to the suffering of the other
victims of the sectarianism and collusion.  Every time someone else is
murdered it brings back painful memories of our own experience.
I'd like to end by reminding you that the murder of Catholics in Ireland
is part of a deliberate strategy employed by the British government,
designed to defeat the IRA, keep nationalists in their place and deter
them from demanding their civil and national rights.  For 70 years we
have lived with this terror and it has not succeeded in beating us.  If
the British government think that their well thought out strategies are
working, I've got news for them.  The people of the Six Counties are
experts at suffering, we've done it for long enough, and you have no
hope of preventing us from continuing to strive for the reunification of
our country and a real peace in Ireland.
--
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  Mark Holohan, DEC, USA        "Character is what you are in the dark" - BB
  holohan@epik.enet.dec.com
  
  The opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinions of 
  Digital Equipment Corporation.

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