Gusty Spence (1933-2011)

Gusty Spence died in hospital this weekend aged 78. He served in the British army for five years and was stationed in Cyprus. He was approached to join the UVF in 1965, and soon became its leader in the Shankill. Under his watch, terror raids by local UVF men resulted in the death of civilian Protestants and Catholics. Spence was arrested shortly after the UVF was declared illegal in June 1966. His daughter Liz describes his arrest in the book …

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Shhh….it wasn’t the shinners

Five days after the murder of Bobby Moffatt – claims of UVF involvement and mass intimidation of people in the Shankill area but Slugger’s expanded team has managed a grand total of one blog on the subject. Pity it wasn’t a friend of someone related to a 2nd cousin of a sister of a guy that used to know Gerry Adams’, joiner’s sacked plumber’s, former school friend – that would have warranted many blogs. Blank

A tale of two cameras

After Sunday’s Independent Hunger Strike Commemoration a video appeared online showing the tail end of the march chanting ‘IRA’ (and for some bizarre reason a lenghty section recording photographers). There was quite a bit in advance of that person deciding to hit record: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqX3Qa_pcoI&feature=player_embedded Blank