Irish History

Britian's Dirty War

BRITAIN'S DIRTY WAR IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND

The evidence that British Army, RUC and British Intelligence "dirty tricks" and murder units are operating in Ireland and Britain, that there is a "shoot-to-kill" policy among military/police personnel, and that the Loyalist sectarian, Catholic murder campaign is part of a larger plan, is overwhelming.

Britain's Dirty War in Ireland is into its 28th year, or well into its 800th year, depending on your vision.

Introduction

Covert, British Military operations against Republicans and Catholics, in the North and South of Ireland, take several forms:

Those carried out directly by British army and British Intelligence undercover units, or army trained RUC units, to either murder targeted individuals or to engage in "dirty tricks" operations to discredit the Republican movement, the IRA, or Catholic political leaders, such as strategic murders or setting off bombs to incite anger, counter-terror, or provide rationale for official repression.

Those carried out indirectly through Loyalist murder squads that are very willing to kill, given the military/police clearance to operate freely in a particular Nationalist area, arms sufficient to do the job, and the personal data needed to know whom to murder, how and where.

The other aspect of the "dirty war" strategy is the Loyalist "sectarian murder" campaign against random Catholics -- seemingly for no better reason than they are Catholics. The cynical strategy behind these murders, however, is not random. They are designed to punish and terrorize the Nationalist/Catholic community for nationalist thinking, pushing civil rights demands, or Republican activity, even of a purely political nature.

The random sectarian murder of Catholics heated up, for example, as the Irish Peace Initiative of Gerry Adams [Sinn Fein], John Hume [Social Democratic and Labour Party] and Albert Reynolds [former 26 County Taoiseach] began to make progress. Twenty four totally uninvolved Catholics were murdered by Loyalists from the announcement of the Adams/Hume agreement in December 1993 through the clarification of the Downing Street Declaration [between the London and the Dublin governments] in June of 1994 -- just two months prior to the IRA's historic cessation of military operations.

The more innocent or uninvolved the Catholic victim, the more profound the leverage, the higher the random terror, the more the price of freedom and democracy is raised for ordinary people trying to live and make a life for their families.