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Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Troubles veteran ‘thrown to wolves' in ‘relentless' investigations
Wearing a hearing aid, the former paratrooper now in his mid-seventies explains that his memory is not as good as it once was. 'There are huge gaps,' said the man known as Soldier C, speaking publicly for the first time in more than a decade. In 2021 the veteran, a recipient of the British Empire Medal for his service during the Troubles, went on trial for murder in Northern Ireland over the fatal shooting of the Official IRA commander Joe McCann in the Markets area of Belfast in 1972. It was the first prosecution since the 1998 Good Friday agreement. He was subsequently acquitted as the landmark case collapsed because of a lack of fresh evidence. Now, four years on, he is facing his another investigation, his fifth overall, in the form of an inquest.
Belfast Telegraph
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
The 1975 feud between Official IRA and the Provos which left 11 dead and scarred Belfast
To that end Republican groups killed over 1,000 members of the security forces and over 700 civilians. Incredibly, different groups and factions have often attacked each over – resulting in the deaths of dozens of people – including innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. This year sees the 50th anniversary of one of the bloodiest feuds between former comrades. Described as the worst inter-republican fighting since the Irish Civil War, October and November 1975 saw the Provisional and Official IRA battle it out in Belfast. It left 11 dead, including a 6-year-old Eileen Kelly, and around 50 wounded. The feud left very deep scars in the nationalist communities of Belfast; schisms which exist to this very day. Brian Hanley is Assistant Professor in the History of Northern Ireland, he is author of a Documentary History of the IRA, 1916-2005 and The Lost Revolution: the story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party. He joins Ciarán Dunbar to tell the story of the 1975 IRA feud.
