10th July 1972: Decisions D and J

This month’s An Phoblacht has also ran with the Relatives for Justice story about the 10 July 1972 memo of a security meeting chaired by NI Secretary of State William Whitelaw that has already been discussed on here and elsewhere. Close scrutiny of the details of the memo suggests that this is an even more significant document than was first noted. Much of the coverage of the memo focussed on the statement that: “The Army should not be inhibited in its …

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The hyperlocal probing into the past: 9.12.11 round-up

On Friday, the probing of the past trundled onwards: at the Smithwick Tribunal into the deaths of Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan, who were shot dead by the IRA in 1989; and, at the inquest into the death of Daniel Hegarty, who was shot dead by a British solider during Operation Motorman in July 1972. There is an interesting contrast in the reporting of the Smithwick Tribunal proceedings on the BBC and in the Irish Times, with the BBC reporting on Jeffrey …

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