Fallacies & Fables of the Belfast “Pogrom”.

Recently I received a copy of a quite rare book. A book which was, according to the mythos surrounding it, pulled from circulation because of the explosive information that it contained.

The book is titled ‘Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogrom 1920-1922’ by ‘G. B. Kenna’.

I must admit that this book was a real eye-opener for me personally. Not because I knew nothing of the violence in Belfast in those years, the so-called “First Troubles”, no, I have read about & researched quite extensively on that dark period of Ulster history.

The book was an eye-opener for an entirely different reason. You see, I had (somewhat naively) convinced myself that the historical revisionism & creation of baseless, propaganistic narratives by Irish nationalists was a recent phenomenon.

It is not. Distorting historical truth, sanitising the actions of violent Irish nationalist gangs & attempting to portray the nationalist minority as the world’s greatest victims is an exercise in propaganda as old as Irish nationalism itself.

In this blog post I will reproduce sections of the book, ‘Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogrom 1920-1922’, without alteration. I will comment on them as little as possible. It will then be up to you, the reader, to decide if the book is an accurate, truthful & unbiased record of historical facts, or not.

We shall begin with the portion of the book which reads as follows –

“THE FIERY CROSS.
On the twelfth of July, 1920, at Finaghy, a suburb of Belfast, Sir Edward Carson delivered a very bitter speech—outlandish, one would say, for any man holding such a responsible position—to the assembled Orange brethren.
Of course, it was religiously read by all his followers in Ulster. The chief theme of the harangue was that the loyalists of Ulster were in imminent peril from Sinn Fein, that he was losing hope of the Government’s defending them, and that they must be “up and doing to protect themselves.” And these are not mere words, he said; ”I am sick of words without action.”
He dragged in the Catholic Hierarchy and the priests. The speech was altogether a good sample of the ”Raw-head-and-bloody-bones ” kind and well calculated to excite the fanatical elements.
Of course, as everyone knows, there was absolutely no menace of the kind.”

“Absolutely no menace of the kind”.

IRA ‘Northern Division’, photographed Co. Antrim, 1920.

Perhaps the author of ‘Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogrom 1920-1922’ was of the belief that the IRA were active in Ulster in 1920 (in point of fact they were active in 1919) merely to assist elderly ladies in crossing the road? Perhaps he believed that the IRA’s so-called ‘Northern Division’ were in fact Unionists who had armed themselves to defend the Unionist people from attacks by the ‘Southern Division’?

Had Sinn Fein/IRA not already killed dozens of people across the island by July, 1920? Had they not already attacked a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in the city of Londonderry? Had they not already fired at Loyalists in that same city in April of that year, with the clear intent to kill as many as they could? Had they not already attacked, fired upon & then set ablaze a police station in Co. Armagh, just 2 months before?

Perhaps the IRA murder of a policeman in Derry in mid May had never happened? Maybe the massed attack on the police station in Crossgar, in which 200 men were involved, was a mere figment of Unionist imaginations?

Was another policeman not shot dead by “Sinn Feiners” in South Armagh at the start of June, an attack which also left a civilian dead? And wasn’t a Sinn Fein man shot dead in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, on the 16th of June, whilst trying to murder police officers?

Who did the Ulster Volunteer Force engage in fierce fire-fights throughout the city of Londonderry between the 18th and the 25th of June? Perhaps the author of ‘Facts and Figures’ believed that it was Cossacks, or maybe Apaches who were locked in battle with the UVF?

Londonderry, 1920.

“Absolutely no menace of the kind”, ha! Mr Kenna is not off to a very good start with his ‘Facts and Figures’!

Now let us move on to one of the main themes of the book- that the police & army stood idly by & did nothing to prevent disorder or protect the nationalist community.

Collusion?

I will supply the reader with just a handful of the very many examples of this entirely untruthful accusation against the forces of law & order.

“..the frenzied Protestant mobs, who in their strength defied a weak and indulgent police.”

“The other side [nationalists], finding themselves in most instances without any adequate military or police protection….”

“But who shall ever write the history of that innocent Catholic group in Ballymacarret, surrounded by coarse, savage enemies, in numbers ten to one, well armed, confident and often supported by the forces of the law!

“Most Rev. Dr. Macrory [sic], Catholic Bishop of Belfast, felt compelled to wire Lloyd-George about the lawlessness in Belfast and the butchery of his people. He protested also against the inactivity of the British military, who afforded little or no protection.”

“The throbbing of a police lorry is often but a sure sign that murder is abroad”

These examples should be ample to demonstrate one of the main themes of the book. One could well imagine, some of the more antiquated language aside, that the paragraphs above were from ‘An Poblacht’ or some other organ of Provisional IRA propaganda from our own time!

Indeed, all that is missing is the cry of “collusion”. A word that was perhaps unfamiliar to the erstwhile Mr. Kenna when he wrote (or perhaps Co-wrote) “Facts and Figures”.

Do these claims of police & army inaction stand up to scrutiny? No, they do not. For in the very same book in which we find these claims we also find the following-

“…the great majority of the casualties among the ‘Loyalists’ were due to the fire of the military and the RIC.”

“Among the dead…..was Alex Twittle [sic] an Orange sniper of whose death the following official report was issued; “a soldier was sniped at. He returned fire and shot the sniper dead” “

“The Orange mob…..had to be dispersed by military fire.”

“A notorious Orange sniper, H. Hazzard, was shot by the military.”

“It will be observed that the number of Catholics on the foregoing list is much larger than the number of Protestants. Of the latter, a big proportion were the victims of military fire. The Orange Party, being always the aggressors, were often made to pay for such aggression.”

Ah yes, the very same police and “military” who sometimes allegedly aided Loyalists & sometimes supposedly just stood around & watched as “innocent Catholics” were “pogromed”, were also killing “Orange” snipers & firing live rounds into crowds of Loyalists. I think I just heard the sound of a narrative collapsing!

The (obviously) pro-Loyalist New York Times with pictures of the “inactive” British army trying to prevent further violence in Belfast!

Were the police & army being inactive when they were killing Unionists & Loyalists on the streets of Belfast? Perhaps the author believes that the Army & the RIC should have simply killed Unionists wholesale?

Perhaps the author of “Facts & Figures”, who was not ‘G. B. Kenna’ at all but rather the Roman Catholic priest John Hassan, genuinely believed that the police & army were biased because they killed only slightly (about 40%) more Protestants than Catholics?

Now we come to my very favourite part of this little book. The part where Hassan contradicts himself within the space of just a few paragraphs! The part that is indicative of the attitude of Irish nationalists, the part of the book where two Irish republican extremists are presented as being purer than the driven snow.

I will keep you in suspense no longer.

“On the evening of April 23rd, two members of the Auxiliary Police were fired at & shot in Donegall Place. During curfew the following night Patrick & Daniel Duffin, two of the most respected & well-conducted Catholic young men in the whole city, were very brutally murdered in their homes by members of the local RIC.

Wow. Two Auxiliary Police “were fired at & shot”? Does the author not mean ‘Two Auxiliary Police men narrowly survived an IRA murder attempt’?

‘Father’ Hassan would have the reader believe that the two auxiliaries were hit by a wayward youth firing a BB gun!

The most startling thing though is his description of the two men who were not just brutally murdered but “very brutally murdered” the following night, apparently in retaliation for the attempted murder of the two police officers.

In his own words these two unfortunate young men were two of the finest young gentlemen in all of Belfast! Two fine, upstanding, innocent men. Shame that he ruins their reputation just three paragraphs later, on the very next page in fact, by reporting that-

“…..their coffins were draped in the Republican colours & carried behind the hearse by relays of the IRA.”

Oh. Oh dear. So the brothers Duffin were two of the most respected and well-conducted young men in the whole of Belfast but just happened to be members of the IRA as well? Maybe they had joined an illegal, blood-soaked, subversive terror organisation by accident? Maybe they were in the community outreach section of the IRA?

The funeral of an IRA “innocent”.

If it was not so tragic it would be hilarious. It seems that many in the Irish nationalist community regard dead members of murder gangs as “innocent”, not just in 1922 but to this very day.

Wrong on Every Count

The propagandist Hassan filled his little book with lies, misrepresentations, half-truths & distortions. So much so that many historians, even those from an Irish nationalist community background, now completely discount “Facts and Figures of the Belfast Pogrom” as a reliable source of information.

For example, Hassan’s figures on the numbers killed are wildly inaccurate & have been shown as such both by people who lived through that period of violence & by numerous historians since. Four of those named by Hassan as being victims of the so-called “pogrom”, were in fact victims of accidental shootings, fatally wounded when guns went off unintentionally.

Two of those listed by Hassan were victims of incidents which happened outside Belfast. On the 4th of November, 1920, RIC Sgt. Sam Lucas died in a Belfast hospital – however his wounds had been received in the course of an IRA attack on the RIC barracks in Tempo, Co. Fermanagh.

Hassan also records the death of a “Private Hepworth” on the 25th of February, 1921. This might refer to the death of RAF Flight Officer Hepworth Ambrose Vyvian Hill, who was shot when he failed to answer the challenge of a sentry at Aldergrove Aerodrome in Co. Antrim, many miles from Belfast.

At least three deaths on Hassan’s list were not politically related at all. For example; William Bell, who died on the 2nd of  December, 1920, was killed when part of a wall fell on him during a thunderstorm.

About half a dozen other victims were also double counted by Hassan, no doubt in order to “bulk up” the number of nationalist victims.

Six of the deaths listed by Hassan could not be corroborated by reports in any of the Belfast newspapers, meaning that they could very well have been total fabrications, added to the list of victims by Hassan for the reason stated above.

“Trust me, just trust me ok….”

A final death as a result of an accidental shooting was not included in Hassan’s list, undoubtedly because it did not quite fit the priest’s own narrative. Joseph Burns, who died from gun shot wounds on the night of the 12th – 13th January, 1922. Burns is named as a member of the IRA on the Co. Antrim republican memorial in Belfast’s Milltown Cemetery, although for years, an element of mystery surrounded his inclusion on this memorial, as his death was not reported in any of the Belfast newspapers at the time.

In later years the mystery was cleared up when republican sources admitted that Burns, alongside two other members of an IRA gang, was accidentally killed whilst cleaning weapons. In 1932 Burns’ mother admitted that “I had to take his death quietly as the police were making active enquiries in the case.”

For many years it has been strongly rumoured that several members of the Official IRA & the Provisional IRA, during the more recent conflict here, also met with violent deaths that were subsequently covered up, for various reasons. How many more mothers had to quietly take the death of a son, in order to avoid police attention or save Irish nationalist extremist gangs from embarrassment or awkward questions?

When is a Pogrom not a Pogrom?

The Kishinev Pogrom took place between the 19th and the 21st of April, 1903, its victims being the Jewish community within that city. Kishinev (Chișinău) is now the capital of the independent republic of Moldova but in 1903 was a provincial city of the Russian Empire. During the pogrom of 1903, a total of 49 Jews were killed, 1,500 Jewish homes were destroyed & dozens of businesses wrecked.

Why do I include these events in a blog post about events in Belfast in 1920-22? Well I include them because the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 is fairly typical of what most people mean when they use the term ‘pogrom’. There are dozens of other examples.

Notice that fatalities in Kishinev include only members of one community; the community which was being targeted.

The Jewish minority in Kishinev did not kill anybody. No Jews were accidentally killed whilst cleaning rifles. No Russian police officers were shot. No retaliation was carried out.

The aftermath of Kishinev Pogrom, 1903.

Contrast that with what was happening in Belfast in 1920-22.

If events in Belfast, between July, 1920 and October, 1922, could truly be described as a “pogrom” wouldn’t that mean that almost all of the victims should be from the minority community?

Even if 70-75% of the victims were from the minority community, using the term “pogrom” would probably be justifiable.

Were 70-75% of the victims from the minority community? No. They most certainly were not.

Approximately 498 people died during the violence in Belfast during 1920-22. Of those killed 280 were Irish nationalists, of whom at least 26 (almost 10%) were members of the IRA. A further 37 of the total number killed were members of the Army, RIC/RUC & Ulster Special Constabulary. That means that 181 of those killed were Unionists/Loyalists, or at the very least from a Unionist/Loyalist background.

Those numbers do not add up to a “pogrom”!

An spasm of intercommunal violence? Yes. A tragic episode of civil unrest? Yes. A Pogrom? Definitely not.

In fact, in the first 18 months of the so-called “pogrom” nationalists killed more people than anyone else. 84 Unionists died in that time, compared to 81 nationalists.

Does that sound like a “pogrom” to you?

Of course, the truth seems to be an alien concept for those extremists & fanatics who call themselves Irish nationalists.

A historian writes…

What other group of people, anywhere on Earth, could engage in a campaign of murderous violence & then attempt to portray themselves as the victims of a “pogrom”?

What other group could, with a straight face, describe members of an armed & violent organisation as “innocent”?

What other group of people would try to convince the world that they are helpless victims of sectarian violence, when in fact they are the worst perpetrators of such violence?

I will leave you with the words of Mr Hassan; “The Turk has the Armenian in the Dock & is close to securing a conviction.”

Contrary to what Mr Hassan believed though, Irish nationalists are not the Armenian but the Turk!

Erased from History; The Limerick and St Johnston Pogroms.

Irish nationalists and republicans would have one believe that the Irish Free State, and the subsequent Irish Republic, was a haven of freedom, peace and tolerance. A place where sectarianism, sectarian violence and hatred was unheard of.

As usual, the real truth is radically different from the laughably, almost child-like, version of the past that is parroted by Irish nationalists.

From the foundation of the Irish state until the present day, the Unionist and non-Catholic minority in the Irish Free State/Irish Republic have faced persecution, repression, discrimination, boycott and violent attack.

The most serious of such incidents have been carefully airbrushed from history. Jettisoned from the historical narrative by those who are only interested in a laughably reductionist propaganda version of history.

We hear, almost ad nauseum, about the so-called “pogroms” and other such violent attacks against the Irish nationalist minority in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Curious then that we hear nothing about the anti-Protestant pogroms which occurred in the Irish Free State/Republic.

Irish republican extremists continue to target Protestant churches, businesses and homes to this day.

I do not intend to cover the outrages and atrocities of the 1919-1923 period, which are simply too numerous to properly document in a blog post.

Instead I am going to focus on a couple of incidents, one of which occurred in July, 1935 and the other in July, 1972.

I am confident that few, if any, of our readers will have even heard of these incidents!

The Limerick Pogrom

At about 10.30pm on the 20th of July, 1935, a Saturday night, rioting broke out in the city of Limerick.

This was not unheard of in the urban areas of the Irish Free State, just as it was not unknown in other towns and cities in other parts of the world.

This particular “riot” however, did have an aspect to it which was largely unknown in other countries.

For the most notable feature of the Limerick violence was that it was aimed exclusively against the city’s small Protestant community.

A large number of shops had their windows smashed – all of them owned by Protestants.

Also attacked were the Protestant Mission Hall in Mallow Street, the Protestant Young Men’s Club in O’Connell Street, the Masonic Club in the Crescent and even the Baptist Church near O’Connell Avenue.

On several occasions the rioters, fuelled by hatred and strong drink, tried to enter those buildings with the obvious intention of wrecking them and burning them to the ground. They were only prevented from doing so by police baton charges.

There was an attempt to set the Presbyterian Church at Mount Kennett on fire, and the Garda managed to head off another violent attack on St. Michaels, the Anglican church in Pery Square.

The homes of two clergymen, Rev. Canon Abbott in Barrington Street and Rev. Archdeacon Waller in Upper Mallow Street, had all of their windows broken. Three more Protestant homes were also attacked, with many windows broken.

In an official report, published in the wake of the pogrom, it was stated that some of the crowd intended to attack every building in the city associated with Protestants, reporting that rioters promised that “we won’t leave a Protestant house standing”.

During the night police were detailed to protect not just business premises and churches but also isolated Protestant homes in Limerick’s suburbs.

Garda attempting to curtail the violent rampage were taunted by rioters shouting “Are ye Catholics?”. Implying that no Roman Catholic should try to stop them, whether they were police officers or not.

The Limerick pogrom was just one of a series of assaults on Protestants in the ‘Free State’ that July.

Most of these incidents, which included arson attacks, window smashing, the painting of sectarian slogans on walls, attempted murder, threatening letters etc, were carried out by individuals “or small groups”

One exception was in Galway City. There a strike developed into a march demanding that Protestant workers be dismissed from their jobs. This overtly sectarian march was attended by several hundred people.

Limerick however was the only location that saw large crowds openly and violently attack Protestant targets.

Some saw this as evidence of the city’s tradition of militant Catholicism. The left-wing ‘Republican Congress’ newspaper argued that the riot “arose out of bigoted teachings among a population unusually well organised in Catholic bodies. There is no other explanation for an anti-Protestant pogrom in this predominantly Catholic city.”

The intensity of Roman Catholic zealotry in Limerick may well have been a factor in the violence. The way the riot developed following a relatively minor incident (the initial smashing of windows at ‘Goods’ hardware shop), and the fact that, despite the numbers involved, the violence was so selective – with not one non-Protestant shop having its windows broken – would also point to some level of organization.

Local politicians and clergy condemned the pogrom, though some attempted to rationalise the violence by asserting that is was almost certainly a reaction to sectarian violence which had broken out that summer in Belfast.

Perhaps the one-sided and sensationalist reporting of events in Northern Ireland played a part in whipping up anti-Protestant sentiments in the Irish Free State.

Perhaps the more sectarian and intolerant section of Limerick’s Catholic community were merely waiting for some excuse to ‘ethnically cleanse” their city of “heretics”.

A Nationwide pogrom?

In Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, at 6am on the morning of 16 July, 1935, the’ ‘Donegal Service Depot’, a Protestant owned motor business, was completely destroyed in a sectarian arson attack. The windows of seven Protestant owned shops in the town were also broken on the same night.

During the early hours of Monday, the 22nd of July, the Anglican church in Kilmallock, Co. Limerick was burnt down, while the windows of the local rector’s home were smashed along with those of a Protestant owned shop.

There were “several” arson attacks in Clones, Co. Monaghan. The town’s Masonic Hall was completely gutted, while extensive damage was done to a gospel hall used by the Plymouth Brethren and to the Pringle Memorial Hall (a Protestant social club). A bakery owned by a local Protestant family also had all of it’s windows broken.

Over the next few days there was an arson attack on the Methodist Church in Boyle, Co. Roscommon, an attempt to burn the Masonic Hall in Kells, Co. Meath and arson attacks which caused extensive damage to four cottages belonging to Protestant families in the Corran area of Co. Cavan.

Shots were fired into the homes of two elderly Protestant farmers in Co. Tipperary, another gun attack was carried out on the Bank of Ireland premises in Listowel, Co. Kerry The manager of the bank, a Protestant, lived over the premises with his young family.

There was another attempted arson attack on a Protestant church in Kilnaleck, Co. Cavan. Back in the city of Limerick, numerous windows were smashed in the Presbyterian Church (which had survived an arson attempt during the sectarian pogrom the previous weekend). Windows were also broken in a Protestant Church in Trim, Co. Meath and a Masonic Hall in Athlone.

An abandoned Orange Hall, Co. Monaghan, Éire.

In Bray, Co. Wicklow, a number of windows were smashed in the Men’s Institute on Main Street (known locally as the ‘Protestant Hall’) and two Protestant teenagers were badly beaten by a gang who first asked them what their religion was.

During the same period sectarian slogans appeared in several areas. “Remember Belfast” was painted on the home of a Protestant family in Ballina, Co. Mayo, along with the somewhat bizarre slogan “Orange shops of Ballina take the Catholic money and smile on.”

In Monaghan inscriptions such as- “The South will settle Belfast”, “Boycott Orangemen”, “Prods beware” and “God bless the Pope” were painted on roads around Castleblayney, a town which, at the time, had a sizeable Protestant community, perhaps as much as 50% of the population.

On the main street of Ballybay, Co. Monaghan, the sectarian slogans – “Orangemen beware”, “Faith of Our Fathers” and “Will Ballybay stand and see Catholics shot in Belfast?” appeared.

“Remember Belfast” was painted on four Protestant homes in Athboy, Co. Meath. Similar slogans also appeared near Protestant businesses in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.

Church of Ireland church at Tourmakeady, Co Mayo. The church was abandoned in 1961 and now lies in ruins.

In Dunmanway, Co. Cork, the slogan “Remember ‘21-watch Belfast” was painted on the roads. In Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath, posters warning that “if this trouble in Belfast goes on much longer we will be compelled to make it hot for you so look out for trouble”, were posted at the Anglican Church and rectory.

Hundreds of threatening letters were delivered to Protestant homes and businesses in various parts of County Monaghan, the poorly spelled letters, which were littered with obscenities, contained statements such as – ‘We don’t want you or your Orange bastards in the Free State.”

They also contained phrases such as – “if you are wise better look for a job in the Six Counties, where you don’t like our Pope. Bullets and grenades are cheap.”

Many of the letters added an extra warning “Beware the IRA.”

In Dunmanway, Co. Cork, two Protestant bank clerks received letters, apparently written by an individual who was barely literate. The letters gave the two men a “First and final warning: we ask you to appeal to youre Brethren in the North for the protection and salvascion [sic] of our innocent Catholics. If murder is continued you shall also share the same faith [sic]. Reporting to the Police is dangerous”

Anti-Protestant boycotts have been used as a tactic by Irish nationalists since 1921.

There were many other examples of intimidation, like an attempt by an ex-Free State Army officer to post up handwritten notices calling for a boycott of Protestants in Killaloe, Co. Clare. In Co. Wexford a shot was fired at a Protestant clergyman’s car.

‘An Garda Siochana’ were not free from sectarianism either. After receiving a report of threats of being made against a Protestant businessman in Kilkenny, they described the man (in an official report) as – “a Protestant and a very bitter one”.

The reaction of many of those who were targeted is very revealing. Some of those who received threats in County Monaghan requested police not to pursue investigations, seemingly fearful of further attacks.

In County Cork police conceded that the case would not be solved because-

“The injured parties and the Protestant community generally are endeavouring to hush the matter up. They are of the opinion that the solving of this crime would start more trouble.”

Given the deeply entrenched sectarianism within Irish nationalism, “more trouble” was inevitable for the non-Catholic minority in the Irish Free State/Irish Republic.

St Johnston, 1972

Situated on the banks of the river Foyle, only four miles from the border with Northern Ireland, St. Johnston has one of the oldest Orange lodges under the jurisdiction of the City of Londonderry. That lodge- LOL992- is mentioned in the Grand Lodge record as far back as 1821.

In 1922, the hall was occupied by armed republicans who cynically destroyed valuable lodge property including records going back over a century.

Other attacks on the lodge, local band and the  Protestant community in general occurred over the years but it was not until the summer of 1972 that the first real pogrom took place.

The pogrom began when local Orangemen returned from the Twelfth of July parade at Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, and formed up at the railway station to march the 400 yards to their hall. They were attacked on the way by a large crowd, who had gathered outside a pub.

Nationalist/republican extremists, fuelled by drink, pelted the lodge and accompanying pipe band with bottles, stones and empty beer glasses.

The hate-filled mob then surged forward. Orangemen and band members (including women and children) were kicked, punched, bitten, spat upon and struck with bottles and other makeshift weapons.

Orange banners were broken and torn, drums were smashed and bagpipes destroyed. But the sectarian mob were not yet done.

The local Masonic hall was burned down, two attempts were made to set fire to the Orange hall, petrol bombs were thrown at the Presbyterian church hall, all the windows in the Congregational church were broken and a Protestant-owned store was gutted in an arson attack.

Several Protestant homes were attacked by the baying mob, homes had windows broken and fences smashed. A car was overturned and set on fire; stones were thrown at firemen and one of their fire-engines hijacked and destroyed.

In one case an attempt was made to break into the home of a local Protestant family. The householder, fearing for the lives of his wife and children, opened fire on the attackers with a shotgun. Three of the attackers were wounded and their confederates turned tail and ran from the scene, leaving their three injured mates behind.

Eventually troops had to be called in to assist the police in trying to quell the violence.

St Johnston Orange Hall.

The ‘Irish Independent’ reported that; “one Protestant woman said yesterday that local Catholics went berserk. She said they smashed their way into her home after attacking her car. She alleged they also attacked the home of a 77-year-old pensioner.”

Despite an uneasy calm being restored, there were reports that several Protestant families had fled to relatives in Derry.

In the immediate aftermath of the pogrom the (nationalist) ‘Derry Journal’ newspaper condemned the appalling violence, asserting that the Orangemen had a “perfect right to their parade in their native village.” It is difficult to believe that any Irish nationalist publication would share that view today, sadly sectarianism has become so ingrained within sections of that community that any such assertion about an Orange lodge or band would today be seen as outrageous!

The Provisional IRA in Donegal also stated that the rioting “had nothing to do with them.”

“Nothing to do with us guv, honest”

Local republican Frank Morris went much further, condemning the violence and going on to say that “Orange marching [is] a great tradition in East Donegal.” Again I would point out to the reader that in 2021, it would be unthinkable for any Irish republican to publicly echo the sentiments of Frank Morris. Such is the anti-Orange and anti-Protestant hatred that has been inculcated into nationalism by the likes of PIRA/Sinn Fein over the intervening 49 years.

In August the head of the Orange Order in Donegal, David Beattie, wrote to ‘Taoiseach’ Jack Lynch. Beattie explained that local Protestants were “particularly concerned at the level of intimidation which has been directed against Protestants in the area for the past 2/3 years” and warned that the fact that numerous Protestant families have felt compelled to leave their homes and seek refuge in Northern Ireland may well be the beginning of “a general Protestant exodus.”

Mr Beattie informed Jack Lynch that the UDA in the city of Londonderry had “offered assistance” but that the offer had been “politely refused”.

These were desperate and worrying times for the Protestant people in the area. In the weeks and months following the pogrom many Protestant families left their homes permanently, and several attempts were made to burn down the Orange hall.

Out of the blue?

Was the St Johnston pogrom an aberration? Unfortunately, no. During the June, 1969 general election, Bertie Boggs, a Fine Gael candidate from a Protestant background, was confronted with allegations that he was a supporter of Ian Paisley.

Roads in Inishowen were painted with nasty sectarian slogans proclaiming “Vote Boggs No. 1: No Pope Here”, and bizarre rumours circulated that Boggs, a councilor in Malin town, was a B-Special.

Cllr. Boggs vigorously denied this and claimed that he was the victim of a smear campaign by elements in Fianna Fáil. He was not elected. Similar claims were made during the election about Fine Gael’s successful candidate Billy Fox, also a Protestant, in Co. Monaghan.

On the night of Monday, the 11th of March, 1974, Billy Fox was murdered by the Provisional IRA. Some people have speculated that the killing was in retaliation for a Loyalist attack which had taken place the previous November, when Loyalists bombed a Provo ‘safe-house’ at Legnakelly and shot one of the occupants, a man described euphemistically as a “republican activist”.

Billy Fox

In August, 1969, multiple threats had been sent to Protestant families in Co. Donegal. The threatening letters came from a group calling itself the ‘United Catholic Front’. They accused the recipients of being B-Specials.

A petrol bomb was later thrown into the home of one of those who had received a threatening letter.

The belief that local Protestants were members of the B-Specials was also echoed from republican platforms.

“Civil Rights activist” Ivan Barr told a rally in Lifford that they (local republicans) were “aware that men were coming across the border [from Donegal], donning uniforms in Strabane and taking out rifles”, but “if they are attacked or interfered with on this side of the border it will bring retaliations in Strabane.”

Tensions arose again during the summer of 1970. Rossnowlagh, the site of the only annual Orange march in the Irish Republic, usually passed off without incident, but Fianna Fáil’s Bernard McGlinchey predicted trouble if it was allowed to go ahead. He claimed that Orangemen had crossed the border the previous August “to help B-Specials in their foul work”, and alleged local involvement in the recent UVF bombing of an RTÉ television mast at Raphoe.

The Ulster Special Constabulary, Category ‘B’ aka “B-Specials”.

No doubt it will come as a something of a shock to many of our readers to learn that some republicans, on this occasion Sinn Fein, defended the Orangemen’s right to march, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh blaming ‘Blaneyite’ elements for introducing tension into what he described as “a completely harmless affair”. Nevertheless, the parade was cancelled and it was not permitted to take place again until 1978.

Had this happened in 1990 or 2000, as opposed to 1970, Sinn Fein would have been at the forefront of establishing a “Residents Group” to oppose the march! It is almost frightening to think that the Sinn Fein of 1970 were less sectarian than the Sinn Fein of recent years but one must conclude that that is indeed the case.

In the midst of the controversy over the Rossnowlagh parade an attempt was made to burn the Orange hall in Lifford. Such incidents increased thereafter; in the last six months of 1970 there were several serious attacks on Orange halls in Donegal. In January, 1971, the home of the Church of Ireland rector at Tamney was damaged by a bomb, and a few weeks later the Congregational church in St Johnston was fire-bombed.

Such attacks continued throughout the decades that followed. Sometimes such incidents increased in the wake of Loyalist cross-border attacks, at other times the actions of Loyalists seemed to act as a deterrent to the petrol bombers and arsonists of Donegal.

“They riddled me”

One such cross-border attack sent a very clear message to Irish nationalist/republican extremists in Co. Donegal, an operation which, regardless of your opinion of it, undoubtedly prevented much loss of life in the East Donegal/Derry city/West Tyrone areas for many years afterwards.

In February, 1974, a UVF Active Service Unit, possibly from the much feared Mid-Ulster Brigade, ambushed one of the most senior (and most dangerous) PIRA operatives in Ulster. They came within a hairs-breadth of killing their target. That targets name was Jack Brogan.

A mere 3 weeks before the ambush, Brogan had been acquitted of the murder of RUC detective constable John Doherty, a Catholic, who was shot dead while visting his family home in Lifford, Co. Donegal, in October, 1973.

Brogan, who was given an award by Provisional Sinn Fein in 2010, once stated that; “I was very active in west Tyrone, along the Donegal border. Our house would be raided nearly every month. If anything happened in the area our house would be the first to be hit.”

Brogan’s ‘activity’ saw him rise quickly through the ranks of the Provisional IRA. In 1971, after a Security Forces raid uncovered guns and explosives at his home in West Tyrone, Brogan went ‘on the run’, living openly just a few miles across the border in Ballybofey.

Indeed, Brogan was so secure in his new home that by 1974 he was running a garage in the town!

In October, 1973, John ‘Jack’ Brogan was arrested by the Garda and subsequently charged with conspiracy to murder and membership of the Provisional IRA. The conspiracy charge relating to the murder of the DC John Doherty in Lifford.

In mid January, Brogan and his co-accused (another West Tyrone Provo on the run and living in Ballybofey) was acquitted, the presiding judge saying that “there was strong suspicion” that the two men were the killers but not enough evidence.

A British Army report from the time states that “the resumption of car bombings, anticipated by the SF [Security Forces] after his release on 15 January 1974, occurred on 29 January 1974 when a car bomb exploded in Castlederg.”

Not long after that bomb attack, Jack Brogan walked into a carefully prepared Loyalist ambush.

Four UVF gunmen lay in wait for Brogan and when he left his house at approximately 10:30, the four volunteers opened up on him.

Brogan said later-  I walked out of our house in Ballybofey one night…..and they riddled me. There were four of them with four different types of weapons; 17 rounds were pumped into me.”

Brogan was rushed to hospital and, miraculously, survived. Although he had a leg amputated, such were the severity of his injuries, and in total spent 9 months in hospital.

Nine months in which PIRA attack attacks in West Tyrone mysteriously decreased to almost nil.

17 years later another prominent republican would be assassinated by Loyalists in Co. Donegal. Eddie Fullerton, a senior member of Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein was shot dead at his home in Buncrana. The UFF volunteers taking part in the operation having earlier crossed Lough Foyle in a dinghy.

PIRA/Sinn Fein godfather Eddie Fullerton.

The killing of Eddie Fullerton and the attempted assassination of Jack Brogan have been airbrushed from history by Irish nationalists, just as the anti-Protestant attacks and pogroms of Limerick, Donegal et al have been carefully airbrushed out.

Irish nationalists and republicans want the world to believe that such things never took place. They want to fool the world into believing sectarianism was (and is) a problem only in Northern Ireland (and Scotland to a lesser extent – for now).

They want young people in Northern Ireland to believe that Loyalists are/were nothing but thugs, incapable of well planned and coordinated attacks, especially against targets in the Irish Republic.

They have a version of history which is entirely divorced from reality. Their narrative is far-fetched and incapable of standing up to even the most superficial scrutiny.

Older Loyalists and Unionists, those of us who lived through (at least some of) the conflict, have a duty to the post-ceasefire generations, and to generations as yet unborn, to challenge Irish nationalism’s cartoon version of the recent past.

And all Loyalists and Unionists, regardless of age or location, have a duty to make sure that the story of people like those forced from their homes in Limerick and St Johnston, people persecuted and attacked because they were seen as Unionists, is never forgotten.

Republicans can try to airbrush all they want, it will be utterly futile if there are Loyalists and Unionists standing ready to make sure that history is not covered up, altered, sanitised or misrepresented.

So, our challenge to you is; tell the stories of the persecuted, the bereaved, the down-trodden, the demonised, the maligned, the harassed and the oppressed. Tell the truth, loudly and often.

Tell your children and your grandchildren about Limerick, St. Johnston, Monaghan. About how Loyalists were forced to flee from the City side of Londonderry. About how Unionists were intimidated out of Bellaghy, Dunloy, Torrens, Rasharkin and a dozen other places.

Tell them about the “proxy bombs”, about the “disappeared” and about the no-warning bombings. They’ll hear plenty about ‘Bloody Sunday’ and Ballymurphy and how evil the Security Forces were. They’ll hear plenty about “collusion” (though only the ‘right kind’ of collusion).

They will hear all about “civil rights” and internment. Whether they want to or not. It’s up to you to make sure they also get to hear about all the things that certain people don’t want them to hear about.

The treatment of Unionists in the “utopia” of the Irish Free State/Irish Republic is as good a place as any to start.

Þole Aȝe Umquhile Poustie