State Violence and Collusion Timeline 1973

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Events related to state violence and collusion in Northern Ireland in 1973.

January

  • 18 - Joseph Weir shot dead in Portadown. William Sloan is later convicted of his murder.[1]
  • 20 - At 3.20 pm on a Saturday afternoon, as Ireland were playing the All-Blacks Rugby team at Lansdowne Road, a car parked in Sackville Place, Dublin exploded, killing 21-year-old Tommy Douglas, a native of Stirling, Scotland.[2]

February

March

  • March undated - Brian Nelson and two other men abduct a partially-sighted man, Gerald Higgins, and take him to a UDA club where he is beaten, set on fire and electrocuted. Higgins is only saved when an Army patrol intervened as he is apparently being led to his execution.[4]
  • 9 - Prime Minister Edward Heath meets Taoiseach-elect Liam Cosgrave, and expresses concern about IRA cross-border operations. Cosgrave agrees to "consider changes in existing channels of communication on intelligence matters."[5]
  • 9 - Patrick Turley is kidnapped on his way to his home in Craigavon, and short with Star Pistol 334164.[6]
  • 20 - British Ambassador Sir Arthur Galsworthy pays his first visit to Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave.[5]

April

  • 3 - Dungannon home of grocer Patrick Devlin bombed by loyalists. John James Somerville was convicted of the attack in 1981.[7]
  • 13 - Ambassador Galsworthy hands secret dossier on IRA active service units to Liam Cosgrave.[5]
  • 16 - Hugh McCann of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs advises Ambassador Galsworthy that the Irish ambassador is agreeable to a small meeting of security experts.[5]
  • 25 - British Director and Co-ordinator of Intelligence Frederick Allan Rowley and Ambassador Galsworthy hold a secret meeting in Glencairn, Galsworthy's official residence, with Patrick Donegan, the Irish Minister for Defence, and his Departmental Secretary.[5]

May

  • 5 - Ambassador Galsworthy meets Irish Justice Minister Patrick Cooney.[5]
  • 8 - Defence Minister Donegan meets Galsworthy and nominated the Irish Director of Military Intelligence (G2), Colonel T.P. Quinlan, as "the normal channel for the exchange of information and intelligence" through meetings in London and with the British military attaché.[5]
  • 24 - Meeting on 24 May 1973 between the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland (GOC NI) Frank King and the Vice Chief of the General Staff Sir David Fraser. GOC says there is good intelligence on loyalists and Herron. VCGS raises the issue of source protection in relation to 'Brocolli'.[8]
  • 31 - UDA member Albert Baker gives himself up to police at Warminster, England, after rejoining the Royal Irish Rangers there.[9]

June

July

August

  • - Whitehall 'Subversion in the UDR' document produced this month.[11]
  • 1 Colin Wallace briefs journalists about William McGrath and Tara at about this time.[12]
  • 5 - Francis and Bernadette Mullan shot dead at their home outside Moy. Their two-year-old son Michael was wounded in the attack.[13]
  • 22 - Séan McDonnell shot dead by loyalists in County Down.[10]

September

October

  • 1 - Opening of the Irish Government's case before the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg accusing the British Government of torturing internees in Northern Ireland.[5]
  • 23 - UDA raid armoury of 11 UDR Portadown at Fort Seagoe, taking four rifles, two submachineguns, ammunition and other equipment.[11]
  • 24 - Winston Buchanan names Robin Jackson to the RUC.[16]
  • 28 - Trade unionist Patrick Campbell shot dead at his home in Banbridge. The Ulster Freedom Fighters (a cover-name for the UDA) claimed responsibility.[17] Francis McCaughey is caught in the blast of a bomb near his family home near Aughnacloy, dying on 8 November. Although the RUC speculates it was an IRA bomb, the PSNI states in 2003 that it was carried out by the UDA/UFF.[18]

November

  • 7 - The RUC raid the home of Robin Jackson.[19]
  • 12 - Three loyalist bombs detonated in Armagh, and one in Quinn's Bar, Dungannon. Former UDR soldier Arthur Lockhard was later convicted of planning the routes and targets for Armagh bombs. UDR member William Thomas Leonard later admitted in prison to involvement in the Quinn's bomb but was not prosecuted.[20]

December

  • 6-9 - Sunningdale conference.[21]

Notes

  1. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.30.
  2. ↑ DUBLIN BOMBING OF 20th JANUARY 1973, Justice for the Forgotten, accessed 19 June 2012.
  3. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.31.
  4. ↑ Sir Desmond de Silva, Volume 1 - Chapter 6: The recruitment of Brian Nelson, Pat Finucane Review, 12 December 2012.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Ronan Fanning, Co-operating on the Border against a common enemy, independent.ie, 4 January 2004.
  6. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.31.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.32.
  8. ↑ Ed Moloney & James Kinchin-White. Did The British Army Have A High-Level IRA Agent In 1973 Code-Named ‘Brocolli’?, The Broken Elbow, 14 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Tom Griffin, Some thoughts on agent Brocolli - with a postscript on Albert Baker, Spinwatch, 15 January 2001.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.36.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.35.
  12. ↑ Paul Foot, Who Framed Colin Wallace, Pan Books, 1989, p.427.
  13. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.33.
  14. ↑ Paul Foot, Who Framed Colin Wallace, Pan Books, 1989, p.427.
  15. ↑ David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea, Lost Lives, Mainstream Publishing, 2004, p.391.
  16. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.42.
  17. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, pp.40-41.
  18. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.49.
  19. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.39.
  20. ↑ Anne Cadwallader, Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland, Mercier Press, 2013, p.50.
  21. ↑ W.D Flackes, & Sydney Elliott, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-88, Blackstaff Press, 1989, p.3.
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