murder – Slugger O'Toole

Today is the 15th anniversary of the murder of Thomas Devlin…

Terry Maguire on August 10, 2020, 8:00 am

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The bedroom light was flicked on abruptly bringing me up from a deep safe sleep. Confused, I struggled to understand what my sixteen-year-old son was saying; there had been a fight; his friends were hurt; the police were downstairs; they wanted to speak with me. I sharply admonish him for going out again; when I went to bed at 10.00 p.m., he and his friends were playing video games in the back bedroom. It was August 10th 2005. A policewoman …

“Deputy Gerry Adams says he took notes and that the individual was a friend who knew what happened.”

Mick Fealty on December 7, 2016, 6:50 am

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So, for the sake of completeness on on-going saga of what Gerry Adams knows about the murder of Brian Stack, there was an interesting exchange at Leaders Questions in the Dail today between the Taoiseach and Micheal Martin (VIDEO). When it came to his turn Adams, dismissed Martin’s intervention as an “opportunistic, cynical and contemptible” attempt to undermine his “efforts in good faith to assist the family of Mr. Brian Stack”. Only, of course, that’s not how the Stack family see …

Injured Prison Officer Dies After Heart Attack

st etienne on March 15, 2016, 2:11 pm

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Adrian Ismay, who had previously been released from hospital after sustaining serious injuries from a dissident Republican bomb attack, suffered a fatal heart attack earlier today. The First Minister lead condemnation, tweeting from the USA on an investment mission, “I’m devastated. Can’t believe the news. I was texting Adrian before we left for the US. He was doing well. My thoughts are with his family.” The PSNI have yet to confirm they are treating the death as murder. Coincidentally today in …

Desmond Curran brother of murdered Patricia Curran reported dead in South Africa…

Robert Campbell on September 3, 2015, 11:18 am

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De mortuis nil nisi bonum In March this year I wrote a short piece about the murder in 1952 of Patricia Curran (here). Patricia was the daughter of a judge, the police investigation of her death was thwarted by the judge, a ‘confession’ was obtained from an innocent man who, in a travesty of the legal process, was found ‘guilty but insane’ and incarcerated in a mental hospital for seven years. This man was Iain Hay Gordon; no explanation was …

After almost 70 years, the murder of Patricia Curran casts a long shadow

Robert Campbell on March 25, 2015, 5:57 pm

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Magna est veritias et prevailabit (Great is Truth and it will prevail) —Cicero (?) (Photo: Belfast Telegraph, Patricia Curran at centre) In the early hours of 12 November 1952 the body of Patricia Curran, the daughter of a judge, was ‘discovered’ by her brother, Desmond, just off the driveway to the family home at The Glen, Whiteabbey. She had been murdered by being stabbed 37 times. Desmond on lifting her up thought that she breathed; she was brought by the …

Forget ethnic thematics: a straightforward response to Billy Hutchinson

Turgon on March 22, 2014, 8:10 pm

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Billy Hutchinson’s explanation for his sectarian murders has been covered below by David McCann. Unfortunately they degenerate into concepts like “Truth recovery”, “ethnic thematics” and such like. The News Letter have provided somewhat more direct responses. From the News Letter: Kenny Donaldson of Innocent Victims United said that Mr Hutchinson’s attempted justification of his murders “bore all the hallmarks of the same sick delusional thinking that is prevalent within the republican movement”. Referring to the UVF slogan ‘For God and …

A touch of state collusion with the Provisionals for the greater good?

Mick Fealty on November 26, 2013, 10:38 pm

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Useful insight from Ed Moloney who discloses one of no doubt many secrets of the clandestine peace process. This one concerns the late Father Alec Reid, on the day the two corporals were murdered at Casement Park, and an interesting take on the collusion of the state in the ‘interests of the peace process’: Knowing that the police would want to question him and that he if told the truth and identified the soldiers’ assailants his usefulness as an intermediary …

Sinn Fein official taped making allegations in regard to Garda Donohoe and Paul Quinn murders

Mick Fealty on August 20, 2013, 4:48 pm

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This is odd. Not sure what to make of it, not least because since it was published on Sunday no one in the mainstream media seems to want to touch it. Under Donal McIntrye’s byline the Sunday World it seems took an interesting briefing from a senior Sinn Fein official… A senior Sinn Fein official has claimed that he knows for a fact that a named notorious republican family were part of the criminal gang behind the killing – and …

Adams’s extended RTE interview on political murder turns the southern clock right back for Sinn Fein…

Mick Fealty on April 30, 2013, 7:39 am

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On Twitter last night the jury was split over Gerry Adams’ performance in a Prime Time interview with Miriam O’Callaghan. It wasn’t an elegant affair by any means. But then again, nor was the subject. No matter how well he handled it, it was always going to go badly with potential future voters and even activists to have Mr Adams interrogated for a twenty minutes on the legacy murders committed by the IRA in the Republic. That ought have been …

Anders Behring Breivik: murderer, fascist; and object of derision?

Turgon on August 27, 2012, 6:46 pm

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Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik was found guilty (and sane) last week. There is an excellent article on Breivik and his ultra right ideology by Matthew Feldman on the BBC website. Feldman (a Reader in History at Teeside University) is an expert on fascist ideology and the far right. Feldman notes the “Lone Wolf” nature of Breivik’s murders: First dubbed “leaderless resistance” by a radical right ideologue in 1982, the “lone wolf” tactic has remained a signature of far-right …

Other reasons for McArdle’s resignation?

Turgon on March 14, 2012, 8:45 pm

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Mick has some thoughts on Mary McArdle standing down as a special advisor below. It may have been that Sinn Fein or Ms. McArdle felt the need for her to move on and as Mick says Ann Travers may on UTV have been determined to see it as an act of reconciliation. A slightly different analysis of the situation is presented by the News Letter. Ms Travers said she thought the reason for the timing of the resignation may have …

Mary McArdle to leave post

Turgon on March 13, 2012, 10:44 pm

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The BBC are reporting that the special advisor to Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin, the convicted murderer, Mary McArdle, is to leave her post “soon.” This is apparently as part of normal party policy to rotate staff. Ann Travers the sister of Mary Travers (McArdle’s victim who was murdered whilst leaving church in 1984) has apparently said on Twitter: “Just heard, Mary McArdle has stepped aside and moved to another job for SF, Thrilled, wish she had done it in …

A calculated insult to victims

Turgon on May 25, 2011, 10:50 pm

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Anne Travers the sister of Mary Travers who was murdered by the IRA outside St. Bridget’s Church on Derryvolgie made a telling intervention in April this year. On that occasion she demolished Pat Cusick of Sinn Fein on RTE’s Liveline (covered by Mick here). Then she was polite, controlled and brilliant as an advocate for victims. Today she has again made her point in the same quiet, powerful and eloquent fashion. This time it was following the news that one …

The response to Con. Kerr’s murder must be measured yet decisive

Turgon on April 3, 2011, 11:27 am

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So we have another murder of a police officer here in Northern Ireland: Ronan Kerr’s name is added to the list of people killed, not taking part in military activities, for police officers are assuredly civilians, not soldiers; but in his case it seems getting into his own private car. In a time of supposed peace, a young man involved in a peaceful occupation, who was not even working was treated as that most appalling and indeed perverse of euphemisms …

Calls increase for new investigation into Joanne Mathers’ murder

Turgon on March 18, 2011, 1:13 pm

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The call by Lowry Mathers for further investigation of his wife’s murder (which I covered on Wednesday) may or may not achieve justice for them and their son. Whilst the precedents for success are not good, his comments, after 30 years of dignified silence, seem to have struck something of a chord. It is worth noting that this story came back into the public consciousness due to the work of Londonderry Sentinel journalist Eamon Sweeney whose comments are here. The …

Call for HET to investigate Joanne Mathers’ murder

Turgon on March 16, 2011, 11:35 am

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This year is census year and is the thirtieth anniversary of the murder of Joanne Mathers. She was collecting the census returns in Londonderry when she was murdered by the IRA. The 29 year old mother of an infant son had taken the part-time job to earn some extra money. On April 7, she had just gone to a house on Anderson Crescent in Derry when a man ran up to her, grabbed her clipboard with one hand, put a …

Loyalist terrorist found guilty of sectarian murder

Turgon on February 28, 2011, 9:28 pm

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Sectarian murder victim Alfredo Fusco and his bride on their wedding day Another of the bereaved families from here finally got some degree of justice today. Loyalist terrorist Robert James Clarke was found guilty of the sectarian murder of 53-year-old Alfredo Fusco in his York Road café on 3 February 1973. From the BBC report: Mr Justice McLaughlin said there “was no innocent explanation” for the fact that fingerprints belonging to Clarke were found on the door which Alfredo Fusco …

There was a young woman from….

Blank on January 14, 2011, 8:32 pm

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An idyllic island reliant on tourism from across the world but with a population increasingly impoverished. A young woman just starting out on life with a new partner brutally murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Breda Waters & Des Kelly’s murders aren’t getting much coverage – they were from Limerick and not related to anyone of note. Limerick has been heading murder statistics for a long time and when they happen now they rarely receive …