South Armagh collusion gang responsible for 120 murders, claims controversial new book
Local Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy has said it is time the British Government acknowledged its role in a number of killings in South Armagh during the Troubles.
Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy
Murphy was speaking after yesterday’s launch of a controversial new book called ‘Lethal Allies’.
The book claims that members of the now disbanded police force the RUC and the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) were part of a killer loyalist gang believed to be responsible for the murder of 120 people in the 1970’s.
The book, written by Pat Finucane Centre researcher Anne Cadwallader, claims to lift the lid on large scale collusion in County Armagh.
In one telling excerpt in the book, a quote from an unpublished Historical Enquiries Team (HET) report claimed that there was indisputable evidence of security forces collusion that “should have rung alarm bells all the way to the top of government”.
According to the book, members of the security forces and the UDR were part of a murder gang operating from farms in South Armagh during the four year period between 1972 and 1976. “It can,” the author claimed, “be demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that there was systemic collusion in these cases.”
Glenanne, just several miles outside Newry, was where one of the farms was situated according to the tell-all book.
The controversial new book was released this week
Speaking to Newry Times about the UDR Glenanne gang in South Armagh, Conor Murphy said, “I grew up in South Armagh through these years. Nationalists and Republicans in this area know well about the activities of the Glenanne Gang.
“It was made up of members of the UDR, the RUC and UVF and was as a matter of policy involved in the sectarian murder of over 100 people. The UDR based in Glenanne was a unionist militia. It is time for the British State to at the very least acknowledge its role in these killings.
“The members of the Glenanne gang were all either directly or indirectly in the pay of the British State. That is an indisputable fact. The families of those people murdered by the British State policy of collusion carried out on the ground in South Armagh by the UDR Glenanne gang deserve the truth.
“There are those within political unionism today”, Murphy continued, “who were in leading roles in both the UDR and the RUC. Let them come forward and tell us what they know about collusion.
“The same individuals are very good at engaging in finger pointing at republicans about our role in the conflict. Let them now place the same focus on the role of the Glenanne gang and the role of political unionism in it.
The Sinn Fein MP added, “I commend the families of those killed by this gang and we will continue to support them in their continuing search for the truth about the role of the British State in the murder of their loved ones.”
Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=36146
Posted by Newry Times News
on Oct 25 2013. Filed under Community, News, Politics.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
