War on funerals
FUNERALS became battlegrounds in Belfast twice in one week. On March 16, a
Loyalist assassin attacked the crowd gathered in
Miltown cemetery for the burial of three Republicans
—Mairéad Farrell, Seán tionalist resistance.
The hypocrisy of the British authorities is equal to their imperialist and racist arrogance. They have even gone to the length of proposing to award the two soldiers posthumous medals for "forbearance" for not firing into the crowd. The Loyalist killer certainly could not be said to have exercised any "forbearance, youth overwhelmed him just as surely as the two soldiers. Moreover, he had the benefit of surprise. In the second case, the youth were ready for an attack. Eye-witnesses say that at least one of the soldiers fired a shot, but was immediately disarmed. The IRA has announced that it believed that the two
IRELAND were members of the SAS elite force that assassinated the three Republicans in Gibraltar.
It is important that the facts and the context of this incident be clearly understood because it is obvious that the British authorities intend to use it as a pretext for a "legal" lynching of as many nationalists as they can.
The author of the following article, a leader of People's Democracy, the Irish section of the Fourth International, is a cousin of Seán Savage and was with the family at Miltown cemetery on March 16 when the attack occurred, within the area spattered by gunfire. *
Gerry Foley
Savage and Danny McCann British policy in — who were summarily executed in Gibraltar on March 6 by a British elite counter-insurgency unit. The Loyalist gunman had a firearm as well as hand grenades. Since possession of firearms is illegal in Northern Ireland without special permission (which Catholics rarely, if ever, get), the killer could have expected to have the upper hand over a weaponless crowd. For example, during the rise of Nazism it was not uncommon for individual or small groups of Brownshirts to attack large gatherings, to show the superiority of a trained and ruthless elite over "mere numbers." T HE LOYALIST killer, however badly misjudged the determination of the nationalist youth. Although he killed one of them and wounded others, they overwhelmed him, and he had to be rescued by the state forces.
A few days later, on Saturday, March 19, at the funeral of the Republican killed on Wednesday, two armed British soldiers clashed with the funeral procession, were overwhelmed by unarmed young people and executed by the IRA before the state forces could intervene. Since then, the British authorities have tried to make martyrs out of the two soldiers in order to whip up British public opinion against the Irish natatters
CHOES of the last grenade explosion had scarcely died away fol• lowing the massacre of moumers at Miltown cemetery in Belfast before the British government began a campaign of racist lies and disinformation. There was no sympathy for the victims. The Sun asked, "Who's to blame?" and answered "Mairéad Farrell, Seán Savage and Danny McCann....they conspired in their own deaths." The Daily Mail took up the same theme: "Now, even as their bodies were being interred, they have triggered a counter-terror. They would have enjoyed that." The Times argued that the massacre had proved the need for a British shoot-to-kill policy.
Although anti-Irish racism is one of the formative traditions of the British ruling class, they normally like to distance themselves from the sadism and rabid communalism of their Loyalist guard dogs in Ireland. But when they think that they can get a section of British public opinion going with them, they bay just as loudly
Running up and down the scale, the British bourgeois and reformist politicians did not neglect the dulcet tones of pious moderation. Tory and Labour leaders, who a week before the Miltown funeral had been vying with each other in cheering and glorifying the SAS assassins in Gibraltar, solemnly informed the dead and injured that their tragedy had proved the "futility of
Official statements about the events in the churchyard attempted to minimize its significance. The killer, a Loyalist called Michael Stone, was declared to be a madman with no connections with the Loyalist military organizations. He was supposed to have carried out the attack on his own. An unmarked white van that sped away from
JOHN McANULTY the scene belonged to the RUC traffic branch. The total absence of armoured patrols was supposedly the result of requests from the Catholic Church and Catholic bourgeois nationalist politicians that the state forces maintain a "low profile" at the funeral.
Police sped away from the massacre
Even this version totally discredits the RUC. According to them, a number of heavily armed police sped away from the massacre, leaving unarmed young men to tackle the killer and capture him at the cost of further death and injury. "Madness" has been used before as a way of explaining away Loyalist killings
In fact, extreme sadism and a psychopathic indifference to their victims' suffering is a political characteristic of the Loyalist "death squads."
It quickly emerged that Stone was a leading figure in Loyalist paramilitary circles. He had close connections to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), which is the leading Loyalist terror gang, responsible for most of the sectarian assassinations. It nonetheless remains a legal organization, with many contacts in the state forces. He also had close ties with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a smaller group
Stone has now been linked with a whole series of Loyalist killings of civilians. He was formally refused membership of the
UDA, but was subsequently used by members of its leadership for undercovermila 5 ings. He was armed with weapons from a April 4, 1988 • #138 International Viewpoint
people at the funeral were concerned.. they behaved in exactly the same way as on Wednesday."*
IRELAND consignment of modern arms obtained by Loyalists in January.
Two other Loyalists are now being questioned about the organization of the atrocity. The "Ulster Freedom Fighters" (UFF), a cover name used by the UDA to distance itself from the sectarian murders it carries out, admitted killing a Catholic civilian the day before the attack and offered support for Stone.
The attack would have been impossible without collaboration from state forces. All Republican funerals since the H-Bloc hunger strike have been surrounded by a ring of steel. This was the true of the funeral cortèges for the "Gibraltar Three" up until the evening before the burial. The killer could not have acted without intelligence
RUC collaboration must indeed have gone a lot further than offering information. They have evolved a two-minute response time for military incidents in West Belfast. It took them 15 minutes to return to Miltown cemetery — just in time to rescue Stone from a group of Republicans. Among the weapons used by the killer was a Rugar pistol with its number filed off. These are standard issue to the RUC.
What is more, Britain's responsibility goes far beyond direct collaboration between members of the state forces and Loyalist groups. The Miltown atrocity was an inevitable outcome of their own policy
Constants in British
At one INLA [Irish National Liberation Army] funeral, mourners were arrested for lining up behind the coffin. This was supposed to constitute a "guard of honour." The funeral of Lawrence Marley, an IRA member murdered by Loyalists, was held up for three days, and subjected by the police to wave after wave of attacks.
### Republican funerals physically assaulted
When this policy of calculated savagery was joined to the policy of Ulsterization, an explosive mixture was formed. The sectarian RUC, with all legal restraints removed, turned every Republican funeral into a circus of vile abuse combined with physical assault.
For a time, this policy seemed to be working. A series of ambushes led to the death of leading Republicans. Their funerals were subjected to brutal attacks, and their families and friends assaulted and humiliated. As a bonus, through the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the British were able to draw on the full collaboration of the Irish bourgeoisie and win church support for their attacks.
This cosy relationship held up until after the Gibraltar deaths. The Irish airline, Aer Lingus, rejected a request for a charter flight to take the bodies home. One Fine Gael TD (teachta Dala, member of parliament) called for blocking entry of the bodies into the country and diverting them to Belfast.
John Burton, a former Fine Gael minister, made the position of Irish capitalism clear: "We have sensibilities, and we have interests. The British are not being very gentle with our sensibilities — but what they are doing is in our interest."
But it was too late to avert the reaction that the neo-colonial politicians feared. The "sentiments" that Burton was talking about were the support of working people for Irish freedom and independence and their resentment at British insults. They began to move into action, and mobilized in their tens of thousands behind the cortège accompanying the three bodies as it drove through the formally independent 26 counties to the border.
### Tens of thousands mobilize for funerals
After crossing the border into the British enclave, the cortège became the focus of an RUC riot. It and the mourners were attacked on a number of occasions. The police joined with Loyalist gangs in stoning the coffins, and finally kidnapped the bodies to prevent demonstrations of support in Belfast.
The home of Danny McCann was put under siege, with mourners assaulted and the
Sinn Fein statement on the May 19 policy
The following have been constants in incident
Britain's Ireland policy:
• Aiming for the military defeat and
BELFAST REPUBLICAN Press Centre spokesman physical smashing of the Republican resistance.
Richard McAuley made the following comment on the
• Isolating and criminalizing that events leading to the deaths of the two British soldiers in a resistance.
• Ulsterization — replacing troops, telephone interview on March 21:
whose death causes a political reaction in
"All of those who were there, including the journalists and the imperialist mother country, with native forces drawn from the Loyalist community.
priests...all believed that the funeral was again under
The "shoot-to-kill" policy is one element attack, that we were facing a similar attack to that which of British strategy. The troops and police involved in these murders had to be prohad occurred on Wednesday, and people reacted tected. Through a whole series of court casaccordingly.
the silencing of John Stalker's es, investigation, the release of Private Thain
"The sad thing about this whole situation is that, apart after his conviction for murder and the offifrom the fact that the two soldiers were killed, the people cial and media praise for SAS assassins, all legal restraints were removed from the who were involved in challenging them, attacking them and state forces.
dragging them out of the car were the same people
The "Battle of the Funerals"
was a second element.
Begun during the hunger involved in confronting the Loyalist gunman on strike, when it became evident that the H-
Wednesday. Yet on Wednesday, they were being hailed as
Block protest would not succeed, it focused heroes, and their behaviour was described as courageous.
on armed salutes by Republicans, and used force to prevent this. In fact, police state-
On Saturday, in exactly the same circumstances as far as ments talked of "paramilitary display."
Anything could serve as the focus for attack: gloves and beret on the coffin, draping the coffin in the Irish flag, or just police suspicion that a display might take place.
International Viewpoint #138 • April 4, 1988
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