Ex-IRA Members Open Up On The Training, Gun Deals And Prison Torture | Crime Stories | @LADbible

shortcut the Torso on my face and the next thing about 10 minutes later big gang of screws must be five or six of them you know just tore into me rubbing my clothes off rubbed my skin beat me with buttons you know and then it was completely naked and no sooner was I standing there and they gave I was growled by the ankles pulled up to the hitch blocks a little that I know when that door slammed on me I wouldn't be getting her dad's Hill for another seven and a half years I've been naked first of all I'd like to begin by saying that our involvement in the ira is not a crime story that our our involved in the ira was it was political motivated by the highest of ideals and we never benefited or profited from any way I joined the IRA well I sort of an unusual background I I was born in the United States I spent some time in the US Marines but my parents were Irish and I lived in Ireland for a number of years before I joined the Marines and uh I just had a republican sympathy a natural Republican sympathy partly because I grew up in the United States which is a republic so I had that strong Affinity with the whole concept of a national democracy within within a republic and uh I felt that the area were fighting for that at the time it's not what they ended up with but at the time I thought that's what we were fighting for so I willingly joined and I was very happy to do so and I think I have to say that the the proudest thing I ever done was was become an IRA volunteer I have a different way I was brought up in Belfast my grandfather strangely enough was an orange man which in case anybody does know they're like close Clan you know and I'm from a republican family so it's very contradictory yeah my family are Republicans but I was never really politely aware I was never really interested you know motion isn't going to Tesco's but uh two things made me change my whole outlook despite my brothers my father being Republicans but when I was uh 16 my broad brought me to diary and it was a time a bloody Sunday I'll ever get it when I heard all the gunshots and all the people who have murdered 14 and rewarded by British bar Troopers started to change my whole idea of where I was living it was dominated by unionist and had been a bit about a British at the time you know and shortly after that my school admit Jim Carr is only 16 years of age he was murdered by loyalists she had a number of times in the head and face just for being a Catholic adult to events really steered me towards a republican movement the actual IRAs it became known today was really after the 1916 raising they became Oakland or the Irish Republican Army in 1969 they split into the official Ira which was more a socialist you know uh former student group The stickies and or the provisional Ira of which we remember you and me were members of the revision Library which were more militant organization at the time devoted to uh you know the total overthrow of British rule in Ireland see Ireland uh was always treated by England as one country when the British talk about the four nations of the UK they never say the five nations they never say England Scotland Wales and the two nations in Ireland the only British rule we were one nation but as soon as we started talking about independent Ireland we're suddenly two Nations nationalists and unions in 1969 I think it was it just the Civil Rights exploded into uh you know the uh to the arm campaign that eventually became by the provisional IRA and again you know it's very important to emphasize that the vast majority of nationalists didn't support the IRA just like the vast majority of nationalists in any country don't support armed groups because it's too dangerous to do so basically myself I was there at the time to protect nice and serious against the onslaught of loyalism in our ears were getting houses we're getting bombed getting burned to the ground you know so facing at the start is more to protect narcissists but as a British started to bring in more troops more armor then we just we knew that we'll have to step up our sales on their defense of what we were going to do you know it was only for maybe a couple of years before I started to actually do some training down south so it'll come back up to the north to face the British but it was very very basic there was not an awful lot of thought going on by hand except maybe just learned how to shoot something go back up the North and fire riff or whatever you know when I joined I mean I was you know I was active at different things I at one stage I was I was approached and I was told to go to America to buy weapons because I had an American accent and I thought that was ridiculous because I had been an instructor in a special operations unit in the US Marines and I thought I had a lot more to offer the IRA than my accent but no I was sent over there to Boston I mean it was ridiculous because I mean we only needed about 3 four different types of weapons and anybody could have done it we had loads of guys their American accents so I know for some reason the Impressions somebody was trying to get rid of me for some reason that I went over there and at that stage uh I met the infamous lady Bulger uh he was uh you know a South Boston gangster but I was introduced to him by Irish Americans who knew I needed false licenses and weapons and things like that and you know law abiding citizens can get you that stuff so uh they introduced me to him now I had no idea who he was I wasn't from Boston I never heard of Jim Bulger by the way you never called him Whitey to his face so sometimes it's hard for me to um disentangle myself from uh the Jim Bulger I first met knowing nothing about him and and the weighty Bulger I know about now I mean this guy wasn't snatching handbags up grannies on the street I mean this was a very capable criminal and very very capable guy you know and uh dude never found Australians at the area in the rear at least you more if you're training that you had the Marines that you could uh teach ARA volunteers a lot that you learn well you see at the time when I when I joined the IRA I didn't think the area I joined the US Marines to enhance my professional development and you know and also to test my commitment I knew if I went back and joined the Marines and I came back and joined the IRA then I was serious about joining the IRA I never for a moment uh was presumptuous enough to believe the irony needed my help because I really honestly believed that the IRA was as highly trained professional organization I kept hearing about yeah but I realized later I kept hearing about it from the British the British kept saying we're this highly trained how do you think you know organization the most deadly gorilla organization in the world certainly when I joined it and I seen you know uh some of the training was was farcical and some of it was wrong and there was no training that I ever saw like in in military tactics nothing like that well for me the scariest was being in the founder of my comrades going into the city center or bulbs and machine codes because when we were stopped we saw we're going to be shut down by this true of British soldiers they were doing a foot patrol and they all had their rifles SLR rifles M Dallas and we thought well my thought my head was if I don't fit and get away I'm going to be shut down here and we're just going to say well we we pulled our weapons first and they're going on borders so I thought better take a chance and see what happens here and that's when we also started fading because they calls between us the British soldiers lasted for about five months but every one of his Minds to get away a day you know well a few scary moments I mean it's hard it's hard to pinpoint anything in particular uh I remember we hit a hurricane coming over uh on the Valhalla the American fishing boat that brought us the guns across and we hit a substantial hurricane that Captain Anderson who was the captain of the boat said in 25 years fish in the North Atlantic it's the worst storm he'd ever seen we barely survived it I didn't think we were going to make it how much Robin's important well seven and a half tons of weapons but you know it wouldn't have made any difference to every campaign it was just standard stuff you know it was it was like a trial run and there was there there were scary moments too you know and you know an act of service so you know helicopters and copy and thinking you're caught and things like that it's it's hard to put on down but for me the scariest thing would have been to think that we were doing this for nothing you know the scariest thing would have been the thought that we were we would be doing this and wouldn't achieve our goal of an online Republic you know and then the scary thoughts too of things we learned in hindsight about how infiltrated we were yes the head of Ira security was a British Vegas the British intelligence Services were allowing informers to kill informers exactly I mean the skullduggery and of the Dirty War was was just unbelievable the story of it they haven't even scratched the circle telling the story of what went on there incredible incredible I would never have joined an organization that the Liberty targeted civilians I mean that that's just not who I am you know I joined the IRA with the highest ideals and the greatest personal risk to fight for the full freedom of my country and I wanted to fight British Military and their constabury things happened atrocities happened you know civilians were killed uh it was uh never intentional that's no Comfort to the families of those victims uh the IRA had to be careful and they you know not to do things that were morally wrong the overwhelming majority of our volunteers were never involved in operation that killed the civilian what was sudden also forgot that the British newness were involved in plenty of bombings but of course yeah I mean British Military Intelligence was directly involved the biggest moment never worried about it did you ever hear that they never hear the British media asking you what do you think all the informs that the British did or the unionists did but again you know we don't want to get into what about Trier you know I know that but I'm just saying you know uh I I do know I I meant they were involved in things that went wrong and it destroyed their lives the guilt they know they suffered guilt they were cold-hearted monsters but again this you know it's a hard thing to talk about because it's no Comfort anything in fact exactly it adds insulin look at it if so if Obama often killed him a member of my family yeah and the bomber said well we didn't mean to do it yeah so it's one of these conundrums it's impossible to answer there's no there's no there's no right answer all you can say is from the bottom of your heart you wish it hadn't happened but none of this would have happened if the British government stayed the [ __ ] out of Ireland yeah the arms thing I was involved in was betrayed men and former I saw it I we were arrested that's a world exclusive I'm telling you yeah and uh we um so we were caught by the Irish Navy off the coast of Kerry but uh I've recently believed that the British were overseeing the whole operation I saw a British Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft earlier that day I was charged with possession of arms and explosives uh with intent to endanger life or with to enable others to endanger life and I got 10 years for that well I got 10 years for that but I actually got another three years for an attempted Escape in uh in November 1985 we were on a very professionally organized Escape uh we had to get to 14 Gates we got through 13 and the explosive charge replaced in the landscape difficult didn't go I know so we were very close to getting out but we got an extra three years for that so the last time I was in England when I was I was repatriated Ireland we were flown from I think full salt in prison to to what year was that what year were you in London I was arrested in London in 1996. and this is the first time you're back in London yeah yeah yeah I was arrested along with five comrades one Sunday morning and near the place where I live in new Lodge Road and we were caught by a British Paw Patrol and we had a lot of bombs machine guns City Center to do a lot of damage not going to say well it was but we intended to do a lot of damage unfortunately we were stopped by British football told who were tipped off by an Informer again and there was a bit of thirsty culture we jumped out of van and we started fighting on to Han with these British troops fortunately we got away and there was a big God made a terrible search operation Holly cobblers all this here and I we all got away but I was uh recaptured about three months later doing another military operation and that's I ended up until for 10 years in the notorious hitch blocks how were you treated by prison officers what were other inmates like other people in prison well I have to say no I was in the South uh of Ireland in a prison and uh it wasn't that bad we had strip searching things like that but it just wasn't as systematically uh bad it was a bad prison and it was you know but we didn't get the torture that Sam and the boys would have got uh when I was in jail in England uh I was in the special secure units in belmarsh and that at the start and it was a prison within a prison and it was it was it was just um it was sort of like a regime nearly where they'd have to you know mail you in daylight and an envelope and an envelope because um it was a concrete tomb within a concrete tomb yeah well the plank that I started off one of the first early black men what happened was I just introduced the Marcus thoughts or builti's special prisons called the hits blocks she got the idea from the Nazis these were to put in the Jews the Quicken up the extermination of the Jews so you got the idea for them she always says they were escape proof you know but firstnet I went under reception I was asked to put on Prison uniform I told him and I put on I'm not a criminal a political prisoner shortcut the doors down my face and the next thing about 10 minutes later big gang of screws must be five or six of them you know just tore into me rubbing my clothes off rubbed my skin beat me with buttons you know and then it was completely naked and no sooner was I standing there I was growled by the ankles pulled up to the hitch blocks by the idols these screws and his plugs is quite a horrendous place I mean it's a neighbor you're going up or pitch dark knight and you just see this big ship like a hitch it just comes into your your vision you know and you've already heard these terrible stories about this place you know so as soon as I got into a circle the screws were written there are no our party screws that beat me along the governor and he's witnessed and all this here you know that the pigeons probably just lost 10 minutes but it felt like ours because it does kicking in batting in a little blue was pointing at me everywhere you know then after beating the drag me down to the hits blocks turned into a cell a little that I know when that door slammed on me I wouldn't be getting her that silver nor seven and a half years I've been naked and I didn't realize a horror that was going to be visited upon me by the screws there were statistics screws and you were going to get beat every day and that's just a slum you're getting beat with the buttons in the boots every single day so it was a total neighboring hi I didn't go mad hello you know it's filmed me you know because the cruelty and the statisticness of it you know there were war criminals that got away with war crimes against naked political prisoners but once again it's a well sort of get away with sort of announces had it been in Russia been World Airlines but the British press of course being who they are you know just suppressed it went along with British government Fletcher the Irish press surprise they're pretty good too but you do expect your own young people necess like to throw away Halo what's happening to you try and help but unfortunately I wasn't a cave and I used to think about these men I call a man I'm going to call them in you know they're scumbags but these men went home to their wives and their kids and sat down and had a meal and had a nice conversation and when we were soldiers in a war and you know and you know when you're a soldier in the war you have to do violent things but personally speaking I couldn't even imagine torturing somebody I mean it just would not you know I just I just for not for no reason for no nothing would I torture him on this just doesn't count in fact occasionally this is happening ideally and I just can't get over these guys doing this but then again most of them Arrangement they they were your bitterest political enemies too you know almost loyalists or orange men or you know and of course too I think one of the the bravest thing about the blanket men and that is that you know you lost a lot of remission so you were adding years to your sentence as well every day you refuse to work you lost it there yeah so you're doubling you're you're doubling the time I've already given you another thing you could have clicked your fingers and come off it you'll come off at night time you've got early release got all the Comforts of whatever they offered because you never had anything yeah no clothes no books no nothing no visits no letters no nothing and you did it overwhelmingly to be treated as political prisoners in a political conflict in your own country proud to be Republican I still am and you know I haven't been cured I'm still a republican yeah yeah if you kind of have to now would you go to Ira again would you would you do all of that over again on a hard pit ever goes through what I went through the hitch blocks people always say to me like some I was a nightmare no regrets for anything I did for the freedom struggle of iron no regrets whatsoever well I'd be the same in that I have absolutely no regrets for what I'd done but if I if I knew what way would it end up would have joined the IRA absolutely not I would not have joined the IRA for an internal settlement on British terms uh to me it was total waste of life and uh a total waste of uh you know we put up a tremendous resistance and that was all that was all squandered uh for political Capital you know to build the the careers of a self-reparating click that ran the movement but having said that looking back I have no regrets uh for anything I was involved in get LED through this pet shop right I mean really it just looked like I had a couple of after animals in it you know what I mean it was a really sorry sight led up the stairs at the back go in there shaving-headed monster sitting behind a table with his nine mil right and that's the opening Gambit that's how we're going to start the conversation

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Id: 7kCZv7yQUe4

Length: 18min 13sec (1093 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023