Billy McCaughey

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William "Billy" McCaughey (1950-2006) was a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Special Patrol Group (SPG) and the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in the 1970s. He was imprisoned for 16 years for murder from 1980 to 1996. On his release he worked as a loyalist political activist until his death in 2006.

Contents

[edit] Early life

McCaughey was the son of a Presbyterian minister, and had the nickname "The Protestant Boy". He served in the Ulster Special Constabulary, the 'B Specials', and when that was disbanded, he joined the regular Royal Ulster Constabulary. A former bodyguard to Ulster Unionist Minister John Taylor, McCaughey was also a member for a time of the Ulster Protestant Volunteers, a paramilitary group associated with the Reverend Ian Paisley, and of Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church.

[edit] Special Patrol Group

In the early 1970s, McCaughey was assigned to the Special Patrol Group of the RUC, a specialist anti-terrorist unit, based in Armagh. McCaughey co-operated extensively with the UVF and carried out a number of attacks with SPG colleagues. He "expressed virulently anti-Catholic views.. and made it known.. that he had strong links to the UVF. McCaughey had been a member of the Ulster Protestant Volunteers, a Paisleyite paramilitary group, before he joined the RUC. A Special Branch recommendation that he be excluded after his probationary period was overridden by an inspector's report that described him as 'one of the best, if not the best, constables attached to my section (of the B Specials)'." [1] McCaughey said of his RUC Special Patrol Group unit: ”Our colour code was Orange and it was Orange by nature and several of us were paramilitaries. Our proud boast was that we would never have a Catholic in it. We did actually have a Catholic once, a guy called Danny from Dungivin. The day after he joined we had him dangling out from the back of a Land Rover with his chin inches from the road. He lasted a week” [2]

[edit] Conviction for murder

McaCaughey was arrested in 1980 along with SPG colleague John Weir. He admitted to a number of other sectarian murders. However, the two were convicted of just three crimes, murder, kidnapping and attempted murder. McCaughey served 16 years. He admitted the 1977 sectarian murder of Catholic chemist William Strathearn: "Strathearn was lured out of his house in Ahoghill on the pretext that McCaughey and two accomplices needed tablets for a sick child." [3]. He also pleaded guilty to the the kidnapping of a Catholic priest, Father Hugh Murphy, in retaliation for the kidnapping and killing of two young members of the security forces by the Provisional Irish Republican Army[citation needed] (Fr. Murphy was released unharmed after a plea from Ian Paisley)[citation needed], and to a gun and bomb attack on a pub, the Rock Bar, in Keady in 1977 where "he shot at a customer fleeing the scene. Two other RUC officers were handed suspended sentences for their part in the bombing. The guns used in the attack were the same ones used in the murder of Co Armagh brothers Anthony, John and Brian Reavey in Armagh" on January 4 1976. "He was also implicated in the killings of three members of the O'Dowd family - Barry, his brother Declan and their uncle Joe - targeted 10 minutes after the Reaveys." [4] McCaughey claimed that the 'Kingsmill massacre' of 10 Protestant civilians the following day caused him to pass RUC intelligence to loyalist paramilitaries. [5] Evidence suggests that McCaughey was active in collusion prior to Kingsmill, and that his involvement in sectarian killings on January 4 was directly responsible for the sectarian reaction at Kingsmill on Janaury 5 1976. [6]

Weir and McCaughey implicated colleagues in at least eleven other sectarian murders. McCaughey claimed that many local RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment personnel were working with the loyalist paramilitaries in the Armagh area. The Barron Enquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974, that killed 31 civilians, found a chain of ballistic history linking weapons and killings, to which McCaughey admitted involvement. These "included, in 1975, three murders at Donnelly's bar in Silverbridge, the murders of two men at a fake UDR checkpoint, the murder of IRA man John Francis Green in the Republic, the murders of members of the Miami showband and the murder of Dorothy Trainor in Portadown. In 1976, they included the murders of three members of the Reavey family, and the attack on the Rock Bar in Tassagh." [7] According to former British Army Intelligence officer, Fred Holroyd, Captain Robert Nairac, acting under Special Air Service orders, was involved in the killing of Francis Green in the Republic of Ireland, [8] and in the Miami Showband killings. [9]

In addition"Barron found that it was probable the guns were kept at a farm at Glenanne belonging to James Mitchell, an RUC reservist.... from which a group of paramilitaries and members of the security forces... carried out the massacres at Dublin and Monaghan.... The chain was unbroken because the perpetrators of these attacks weren't caught, or investigations were haphazard, or charges were dropped, or light or suspended sentences were given. The same individuals turn up again and again, but the links weren't noted. Some of the perpetrators weren't prosecuted despite evidence against them. On 28 October 1973, Robin Jackson murdered Patrick Campbell, a 34-year-old Catholic from Banbridge. He shot him on the doorstep of his home. Campbell's wife picked Jackson out during a police identity parade. However, a murder charge brought against him was dropped after it was claimed Mrs Campbell knew Jackson - a claim she denies. Six months later, the loyalist was one of those who bombed Dublin and Monaghan [see Dublin and Monaghan bombings]. Barron notes that in 1976, the security forces came up with evidence, including Jackson's finger print on one of the guns in the chain above. The judge said it was clear he had touched it, but unclear "as to whether he did that wittingly or unwittingly, willingly or unwillingly." He was released. In 1977, he was named in court as the gunman who shot William Strathearn in Ahoghill, Co Antrim. Two RUC men, Billy McCaughey and John Weir were convicted. Jackson wasn't even questioned, for "operational reasons" which have never been detailed." [10]

Weir claimed that McCaughey was part of this 'Glenanne group', though McCaughey disputed this. McCaughey refused to give evidence to Judge Barron's enquiry, claiming "I know nothing about it"[11] However Judge Barron disagreed. "The Inquiry agrees with the view of An Garda Siochana that Weir's allegations regarding the Dublin and Monaghan bombings must be treated with the utmost seriousness." The dossier goes on to reveal that McCaughey did admit knowing ex-RUC reservist James Mitchell.[12]

[edit] Prison and subsequent activities

In prison in the Maze, McCaughey completed a degree in Education and Social Science in 1994 from the Open University. He also claimed to have found God as "a devout member of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian church." [13] His association with Paisley, founder and leader of the Free Presbyterian Church, of the Protestant unionist Party and of the Democratic unionist Party, stretched "back to the 1960s, and he was one of the first to join the Democratic Unionist party in North Antrim at the start of the Troubles. Despite McCaughey's reputation as a sectarian killer, the DUP has never disowned him. He received letters of thanks from the party hierarchy for his help in raising funds to help defend Peter Robinson, its deputy leader, in a court case. McCaughey had organised a sponsored run around the prison exercise yard." [14] A letter written in 1991 to McCaughey by Ian Paisley was revealed in 1998, during the run up to a referendum vote on the Good Friday Agreement . "In it, the DUP chief told Billy McCaughey that matters in relation to prisoners 'would have to be looked at very closely indeed with all the various considerations being weighed in the balance'. Mr Paisley had added in his own handwriting: 'There is a door for you to get to the Secretary of State, a door which we were able to open'." [15]

McCaughey was released in 1996. He appears to have become disillusioned with with Ian Paisley, "allowing his membership of the Free Presbyterian Church to lapse" by 1998. [16] He declared himself "undecided" in the Good Friday referendum of that year: "I want to support this agreement. I want it to work, but don't want to be endorsing some republican plot." [17] McCaughey became a member of the Progressive Unionist Party, the party associated with the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force. McCaughey became a prominent figure in the sectarian picketing of Our Lady's Roman Catholic Church in Harryville, Ballymena. He "denied newspaper claims that he is a central organiser of the protest." The Irish News reported that McCaughey, "was playing a leading role in the weekly church pickets. "I definitely am not, but I have done a few press releases, ... I would have certain capabilities in that regard which maybe some of those involved wouldn't." McCaughey said he sympathised with the aim of the Harryville protest, which was "to secure civil rights for Orangemen in Dunloy". He had taken part in the church pickets "maybe six times" over a 21 week period." [18] He later claimed that he had "withdrawn from the protest because of a "witch hunt" against him by the nationalist media" [19]

Some years later McCaughey joined the short lived 'United Loyalist Cultural Committee', "a shadowy loyalist group, which admits to having members from the UVF and UDA". The Committee "threatened to hold regular weekly street protests in a Roman Catholic part of Ballymena until Irish tricolours are removed.... Convicted loyalist murderer and PUP spokesman Billy McCaughey... took part." [20] The protest was followed by a loyalist attack on the flags. According to the Irish News "two dozen men were charged with breaching the peace after they allegedly stormed into the Fisherwick estate in Ballymena last month and removed tricolours from lampposts." On the day of the court hearing, "at the door of the courthouse a group of about 20 loyalist supporters staged a picket, led by PUP representative Billy McCaughey, who waved a Union flag." He explained: "This is not a protest - we are here to show our sympathy for the boys." [21]

In April 2004, McCaughey attended an official dinner with Irish Republic President Mary McAleese in Aras an Uachtarain, the Presidential residence in Dublin. McCaughey declared that that he intended "to invite the President to visit the staunchly Protestant Ballee and Harryville areas of Ballymena." [22] McCaughey withdrew the invitation because of President McAleese's "Holocaust Day speech in which she compared Protestant prejudice towards Catholics to the Nazi hatred of Jews." [23] In August 2005, McCaughey warned that loyalists were considering restarting the sectarian picket outside Harryville Roman Catholic Church in Ballymena if Protestant Orange Order marchers were rerouted from a mainly Roman Catholic area of the town. [24].

McCaughey several times[citation needed] stood for election to Ballymena Borough Council, always unsuccessfully, despite its overwhelming Unionist majority. He also unsuccessfully contested the South Ballymena ward in local elections and North Antrim for the assembly elections.

He died of lung cancer in 2006.

[edit] References

  1. ^ RUC man's secret war with the IRA, by Liam Clarke, Sunday Times, March 7 1999.
  2. ^ Bandit Country, by Toby Harnden, Coronet Books, 2000
  3. ^ Hatred in Harryville, by Henry McDonald, Sunday Times, February 9 1997
  4. ^ Loyalist 'took vital secrets to his grave', by Sharon O'Neill, Irish News, February 11 2006
  5. ^ see Harnden, p. 190-195
  6. ^ Interim Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Bombing of Kay’s Tavern, Dundalk July, 2006.
  7. ^ Barron throws light on a little shock of horrors, by Susan McKay, Sunday Tribune, December 14, 2003.
  8. ^ The SAS in Ireland - Revealed, Irish News, by Barry McCaffrey, July 13 2006.
  9. ^ Ken Livingstone, maiden speech British House of Commons, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, volume 118, July 7 1987
  10. ^ Barron throws light on a little shock of horrors, by Susan McKay, Sunday Tribune, December 14 2003.
  11. ^ in He should have been slapped in handcuffs, by Martin Breen, News of the World, March 6 2005
  12. ^ ibid
  13. ^ Hatred in Harryville, by Henry McDonald, Sunday Times, February 9 1997
  14. ^ ibid
  15. ^ 'An old promise to Maze prisoner' comes back to haunt Paisley, by Mervyn Pauley, News Letter, May 22 1998.
  16. ^ Voices of the people caught up in the Troubles, The Herald (Glasgow), May 20 1998.
  17. ^ in ibid
  18. ^ Loyalist denies role as tension over Harryville protest mounts, by Deaglan De Breadun, The Irish Times, February 7 1997
  19. ^ Hopes grow for peace at parade, by Martina Purdy and Noel McAdam, Belfast Telegraph, February 8, 1997
  20. ^ Fears grow of a new 'Harryville'; shadowy group plans Ballymena protest, Belfast News Letter, June 27 2001
  21. ^ Loyalists bring Union flag to courthouse, by Anne Madden, Irish News, July 20, 2001
  22. ^ in He should have been slapped in handcuffs, by Martin Breen, News of the World, March 6 2005
  23. ^ ibid
  24. ^ No repeat of the Harryville protests, News Letter (Belfast), August 8 2005
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