Taken From Book, Fifty Dead Men Walking, by Martin McGartland;-
On Thursday morning in June 1999 I unlocked the car door, sat inside the car and started the engine. But before I could close the door I sensed someone was nearby. I looked up, saw this man wearing a green coat with a gun pointing at me. Instinctively, I lifted my right arm to protect myself. A split second later I felt two thuds hit my right side, the shock reverberating through my body.
I knew in that instant that this gunman was a Provo assassin and from the impact the bullets made on my body I guessed he was using a heavy calibre round, probably a 9mm fired from an automatic. But thank God my brain was still working and I knew that I had to stop him shooting me again. I knew he would go for my head; I knew he would have been told exactly where to target and what to do.
The power of the shots had thrown my body across the car seat to the passenger side and the gunman stretched out his arm so that his gun was close to my head. Before he could pull the trigger I somehow managed to grab the barrel of the gun with my left hand and it went off, the bullet ripping through my hand and lodging in my stomach.
I tried to keep hold of the gun. Something inside my head told me that I had to keep hold of that gun if I was to survive. I wanted to turn the gun so that if he pulled the trigger he would shoot himself. But my strength was fading fast. I felt suddenly powerless, almost at his mercy. I tried to hang on to the gun but I couldn’t. With a concerted tug he managed to wrench the gun from my hand. At that instant I believed I was a dead man.
But the will to survive, to live another day, took over and something stirred deep inside me. I wasn’t finished yet. I tried to lunge towards him again, to grab the gun, but I simply didn’t have the strength. He stepped back a pace and fired four more times hitting me twice in the chest, in the stomach and in the top of the leg.
I heard the ‘tap-tap’ of the automatic and two bullets thudded into my chest with real force. The pain surged through my body and the power of those bullets sent me sprawling backwards across the car seats. I thought he had shot me in the heart and I knew that would be curtains. Before I could sit up I heard the sound of two more ‘tap-taps’ and I felt pain in my stomach and in the top of my leg. I could do nothing to protect myself. I couldn’t move. I was now at his mercy. This was the end.
I thought in that split second that I didn’t want to die, sprawled on the front seat of a car, my body punctured by bullets from a Provo gunman. My mind flashed to the number of times I had seen others killed in this way in Northern Ireland over the years, their dead, broken bodies sprawled grotesquely in the cars they were driving. Something told me that I had to survive.
For what seemed like seconds I waited for more bullets but there were none. I looked up and he had gone, disappeared from sight. Convinced that he had carried out his mission, certain that I was dead, the bastard had fled.
I realised that grabbing that gun had so disorientated the Provo gunman that he panicked. I knew the Prove orders – always shoot people in the head because then we know they’re dead men. And dead men can’t talk.
It took me a couple of seconds to collect my thoughts. I guessed he wouldn’t return for he must have thought that with seven rounds inside me from something like a 9mm automatic I hadn’t a hope in hell of surviving. I wasn’t too sure myself at that stage. Now the pain began to take over, wracking my chest, my side, my stomach and my leg. I looked at my thumb hanging by a thread and repeated over and over, ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck’. Somehow, swearing like that helped me get my head together.
I told myself that I was alive and that if I could stay alive until I got to hospital I would be okay. But how the hell could I get to hospital like this? I thought of trying to drive and then told myself I was being stupid. I hoped to hell someone had heard the sound of shots.
As I struggled to get out of the car, to get help, I felt again the thudding impact of the bullets each time they hit my body, knocking me backwards, knocking the stuffing out of me, preventing me from lunging at him and getting the gun. I managed to pull myself out of the car and then I collapsed onto the ground. I knew I had been shot six or seven times, but I was still breathing, though blood was pumping from my chest, my side and my stomach and my thumb looked as though it had been shot away.
My only fear was that I would lie in that garage and bleed to death. I put my arm across my chest to try and stop the blood gushing out but it was everywhere. I wondered if the Prove bastard had hit my heart or a main artery and realised that I had to stay conscious. I tried to feel my heart to see if it was okay and felt it pumping away. But I worried in case all the blood was being pumped out of my body rather than round my arteries.
I kept telling myself that whatever happened I must not fall asleep though I felt like closing my eyes and drifting off into oblivion. I kept talking to myself, saying over and over again, ‘If you fall asleep you will never wake again. If you fall unconscious you will simply die. Now, for fuck’s sake keep awake.’
And then I felt pain. A minute or so must have passed since the Provo bastard ran off, and, until that moment there had been little pain. Now the pain wracked my body, my chest, my side, my stomach, my arm, my hand. Shit, it hurt. I gritted my teeth to try and stop the pain hurting so much but I couldn’t. I kept talking to myself, telling myself that I could handle the pain as long as I lived. I tried telling myself that the pain wasn’t that bad but it was getting to me. I just wanted to curl up and sleep.
I also realised that if I didn’t get to hospital quickly I would die. I tried to shout for help but the words wouldn’t come. Somehow I couldn’t find the strength to shout for help, only moans came from my throat. Alone in that garage, with the blood pouring out of my body and with my chest, side and stomach pumping blood through my clothes and on to the floor, I felt my life was over. The bastard Provos had got their revenge.
Then I heard voices shouting ‘Marty’ and it was the most glorious sound of my entire life. Now there was hope. I managed to open my eyes and through blurred vision I recognised my neighbours, the Connon family, bending over me asking if I was alright.
Jesus, it was good to see them; I could have cried when I realised they had come to the rescue; had come to help me. I knew the whole family. They were good, honest people and I knew in that instant that they would help me and save me. Somewhere in my mind I recalled that their elder son Adam, aged around eighteen, had studied first aid and that his mother Andrea was something to do with a hospital.
I heard them asking me questions and I can’t recall if I replied or not. My memory was going and so was my brain. I think I murmured ‘fucking Provos’.
‘Keep quiet, stay still,’ Adam said. ‘An ambulance is on the way. Just lie still and you’ll be okay.’
Adam took off my T-shirt and someone ran off and returned with cling film which he wrapped around my chest and my side in an effort to stem the bleeding. I remember him stuffing stocks into my wounds trying to stop the flow of blood that was everywhere. I recall his mother Andrea cradling my head in her arms, talking to me, soothing me, keeping me conscious as we waited for the ambulance. I owe my life to that family and particularly Adam. If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking I would be dead.
The next thing I remember was waking in hospital some 48 hours later, drifting in and out of consciousness. My mother Kate, sister Lizzie and brother Joseph were there standing around my bed and I wondered why they were there as though this was all part of a dream. I couldn’t understand what they were doing there, standing at the end of my bed looking at me. I asked if I was going to live. They gave me the answer I wanted to hear and I drifted once more into unconsciousness.
Five days after the shooting I was still in intensive care guarded round the clock by seven armed police officers, all wearing body armour. Ten days later I was moved from hospital to a safe house but I was still under armed guard. For two years I had pleaded with the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary Jack Straw to give me some protection but they had always refused, saying I was in no danger from the IRA. They even refused to give me any CCTV system to check outside my house for any suspicious strangers.
And yet my former friends in Northern Ireland’s Special Branch knew differently. They knew my life was still under threat even though there was a so-called cease fire, even though peace talks were due to start within days, attended by both Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Aherne. The Belfast SB knew I was still high on the IRA’s death list. But the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary chose to ignore their advice.
If they had listened to those senior officers who knew the minds of those hard-line IRA activists, I would never have been shot because I would have had some protection. I was never cavalier about my security. I always knew that sometime, somewhere, they would have another go at me. And I was determined to make sure they didn’t get me.
After the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998 I had high hopes that one day I would be able to lead a normal, ordinary life; get a proper job, enjoy my life a little without the constant worry of waiting for the unexpected, the knock at the door, a bullet in the back or a gunman waiting by the garage to kill me. The longer the peace deal was intact the more my hopes rose.
Then Eamonn Collins, a self-confessed IRA killer who turned against the terrorist movement, was murdered by the Provos. At the time of his shooting I made a statement saying, ‘Now I feel like I am waiting for someone to come to my house and shoot me.’
I tackled Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams during a radio talk show earlier this year asking him when Sinn Fein/IRA were going to allow people like me to return in safety to Northern Ireland without fear of reprisals. His answer was evasive. That too made me realise that I had to keep my wits about me.
I heard in May this year that MI5 had warned senior politicians, including several former Northern Ireland Secretaries, to take extra care over security for they feared the Provos were intent on launching a new wave of violence. But no one warned me.
My Ma told me when she saw me lying in the hospital with bullet wounds all over my body, ‘Marty, you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to get away. You know the Provos will never give up trying to kill you, peace or no peace.’
I know she’s right; my ma was always right. Now I must persuade the Home Secretary and the Northumbria Police to listen, take note and give me some protection.
End
Ps; Within minutes of Martin's shooting, while Martin was fighting for his life, Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government began a cover-up and a smear campaign against Martin McGartland, Why? Simple, they did so to save face given it was Northumbria Police and Mi5 who exposed Martin to danger after they, CPS and Mi5, took a failed malicious prosecution against him in 1987. During the case Northumbria Police read out Martin McGartland's name, home address in open court. Those details were published in UK wide newspapers. However, Northumbria Police continued to repeat the lie that Martin was safe. Martin McGartland was not safe, Mi5, Northumbria Police and CPS knew that, and he was shot 6 times by the IRA outside his home on 17th June 1999. Since then Northumbria Police have been covering-up the Martin McGartland case, covering-up for the IRA and refusing to admit in public that the IRA was involved in Martin attempted murder.
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Lots has happened since. You can read the whole story in; Fifty Dead Men Walking (Book) and Dead Man Running (Martin's second book). There has, and continues to be a Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government Cover-up, Jack Straw and home office have been involved. You can follow Martin on Facebook, Bebo and on the Martin McGartland Blogs.
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Monday, June 24, 2002
Tuesday, September 25, 2001
Northumbria Police Cover Up 1999 IRA terrorist attack on Martin McGartland
Northumbria Police Cover Up 1999 IRA terrorist attack on Martin McGartland
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In January 1999, author and former IRA man turned informer Eamon Collins was beaten to death by the IRA in Newry, County Down. In May 1999, the IRA murdered Brendan 'Speedy' Fegan. They again justified their action by claiming that he was a leading drugs dealer. They shot him dead in a bar in Newry. In June 1999, the IRA murdered Paul Downey. Once again, they claimed that he had been a prominent drugs dealer. In June 1999, Martin McGartland, an RUC agent who infiltrated the IRA, narrowly escaped with his life after being shot in Whitley Bay, Northumbria, by IRA members. I have a copy of a letter sent to Mr McGartland by Northumbria police. It shows that they had arrested Henry Fitzsimmons and Scott Gary Monaghan, two well known Provisional IRA members, and that they were regarded as responsible for the attempt to kill Martin McGartland. However, even with all of that evidence, the Secretary of State considered that in the round there had no breach of the IRA ceasefire or the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
4.15 pm
In July 1999, the IRA abducted and murdered Charles Bennett, a New Lodge man. Also in July, the men arrested, and convicted in connection with the importation of arms from Florida were shown to be members of the Provisional IRA. It was proven that that activity was sanctioned at the highest level of the Provisional IRA. I will come back to that issue in my winding-up speech. Clearly, those men were members of the Provisional IRA. On the Noraid Internet site, they are described as IRA prisoners in an American jail. An article in 'GQ' magazine shows clearly the links between the Provisional IRA and those who were arrested, and asserts that they were part of an IRA gun running escapade. It is interesting that that activity was being planned at the same time as the organisation's representatives were sitting down with Senator George Mitchell and telling him how sincere they were about trying to achieve progress on decommissioning. While they were telling the senator that they were serious about decommissioning, they were importing guns from the United States to increase their stockpile of weaponry.
In August 1999, the IRA deported five men from Dungannon and one from Belfast for what they judged to be antisocial behaviour. I suppose that they consider their murdering and gunrunning to be civil and convivial. In October 2000, the IRA murdered Real IRA man, Joe O'Connor, in Ballymurphy, west Belfast. In April 2001, the IRA used the usual excuse of drug dealing to justify murdering Christopher O'Kane in Londonderry. In May 2001, the IRA again murdered someone who, it claimed, was a drug dealer. The victim, that time, was Paul Daly from Belfast. He was shot in front of his family.
In April 2001, Londonderry man, Gerald McFadden, from Rathlin Gardens in the Creggan estate was charged after he was found to have personal details of senior RUC officers. He has since been convicted of that offence. That demonstrates that the IRA was engaged in the targeting of RUC officers and that, once again, it was in contravention of the explicit requirement to use only peaceful and democratic means. In June 2001, the Provisional IRA raided Belfast docks and stole about £4 million. Also in June 2001, the IRA raided the house of an arms dealer in Athlone, County Westmeath. The attackers threatened him, tied up his wife and children, and stole over 100 shotguns, rifles and a quantity of ammunition.
In August 2001 came Colombia, another effort by the Provisional IRA to secure the peace process. I will deal with that issue in my winding-up speech. That was an added embarrassment for Sinn Féin, because all three men involved had party connections. According to the Government of their friend, Fidel Castro - to whom Mr Adams is soon going out to talk - one of the men, Connolly, was the accredited representative of Sinn Féin in Cuba and, no doubt, in South America. I have said James Monaghan was on the brigade staff at the headquarters of the Provisional IRA. He is their well known chief engineer and bomb maker. Such an individual would not have been a freelancer; he was on a mission sanctioned by the so-called Army Council of the Provisional IRA. They tried to tell us that those boys were really on holiday. I can think of more attractive places in which to holiday than the malaria-stricken jungles, where the opportunities for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to kidnap or kill must be greater than anywhere else in the world. Clearly, the Provisional IRA, at the very highest level, sanctioned that mission.
I cannot say anything about the arrest of IRA leader, Eddie Copeland, in north Belfast, as the matter is before the courts. I could have spoken of many other IRA failures to maintain its ceasefire. One wonders, after hearing that catalogue of events, what the IRA must do before the House imposes sanctions on Sinn Féin/IRA. I hope, in what may be the last act before the suspension of the Assembly, that the House will not again dodge the issue and that it will support the motion.
http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports/010918d.htm
======================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================
In January 1999, author and former IRA man turned informer Eamon Collins was beaten to death by the IRA in Newry, County Down. In May 1999, the IRA murdered Brendan 'Speedy' Fegan. They again justified their action by claiming that he was a leading drugs dealer. They shot him dead in a bar in Newry. In June 1999, the IRA murdered Paul Downey. Once again, they claimed that he had been a prominent drugs dealer. In June 1999, Martin McGartland, an RUC agent who infiltrated the IRA, narrowly escaped with his life after being shot in Whitley Bay, Northumbria, by IRA members. I have a copy of a letter sent to Mr McGartland by Northumbria police. It shows that they had arrested Henry Fitzsimmons and Scott Gary Monaghan, two well known Provisional IRA members, and that they were regarded as responsible for the attempt to kill Martin McGartland. However, even with all of that evidence, the Secretary of State considered that in the round there had no breach of the IRA ceasefire or the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
4.15 pm
In July 1999, the IRA abducted and murdered Charles Bennett, a New Lodge man. Also in July, the men arrested, and convicted in connection with the importation of arms from Florida were shown to be members of the Provisional IRA. It was proven that that activity was sanctioned at the highest level of the Provisional IRA. I will come back to that issue in my winding-up speech. Clearly, those men were members of the Provisional IRA. On the Noraid Internet site, they are described as IRA prisoners in an American jail. An article in 'GQ' magazine shows clearly the links between the Provisional IRA and those who were arrested, and asserts that they were part of an IRA gun running escapade. It is interesting that that activity was being planned at the same time as the organisation's representatives were sitting down with Senator George Mitchell and telling him how sincere they were about trying to achieve progress on decommissioning. While they were telling the senator that they were serious about decommissioning, they were importing guns from the United States to increase their stockpile of weaponry.
In August 1999, the IRA deported five men from Dungannon and one from Belfast for what they judged to be antisocial behaviour. I suppose that they consider their murdering and gunrunning to be civil and convivial. In October 2000, the IRA murdered Real IRA man, Joe O'Connor, in Ballymurphy, west Belfast. In April 2001, the IRA used the usual excuse of drug dealing to justify murdering Christopher O'Kane in Londonderry. In May 2001, the IRA again murdered someone who, it claimed, was a drug dealer. The victim, that time, was Paul Daly from Belfast. He was shot in front of his family.
In April 2001, Londonderry man, Gerald McFadden, from Rathlin Gardens in the Creggan estate was charged after he was found to have personal details of senior RUC officers. He has since been convicted of that offence. That demonstrates that the IRA was engaged in the targeting of RUC officers and that, once again, it was in contravention of the explicit requirement to use only peaceful and democratic means. In June 2001, the Provisional IRA raided Belfast docks and stole about £4 million. Also in June 2001, the IRA raided the house of an arms dealer in Athlone, County Westmeath. The attackers threatened him, tied up his wife and children, and stole over 100 shotguns, rifles and a quantity of ammunition.
In August 2001 came Colombia, another effort by the Provisional IRA to secure the peace process. I will deal with that issue in my winding-up speech. That was an added embarrassment for Sinn Féin, because all three men involved had party connections. According to the Government of their friend, Fidel Castro - to whom Mr Adams is soon going out to talk - one of the men, Connolly, was the accredited representative of Sinn Féin in Cuba and, no doubt, in South America. I have said James Monaghan was on the brigade staff at the headquarters of the Provisional IRA. He is their well known chief engineer and bomb maker. Such an individual would not have been a freelancer; he was on a mission sanctioned by the so-called Army Council of the Provisional IRA. They tried to tell us that those boys were really on holiday. I can think of more attractive places in which to holiday than the malaria-stricken jungles, where the opportunities for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to kidnap or kill must be greater than anywhere else in the world. Clearly, the Provisional IRA, at the very highest level, sanctioned that mission.
I cannot say anything about the arrest of IRA leader, Eddie Copeland, in north Belfast, as the matter is before the courts. I could have spoken of many other IRA failures to maintain its ceasefire. One wonders, after hearing that catalogue of events, what the IRA must do before the House imposes sanctions on Sinn Féin/IRA. I hope, in what may be the last act before the suspension of the Assembly, that the House will not again dodge the issue and that it will support the motion.
http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports/010918d.htm
Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Cover-up by Northumbria Police - Harry Fitzsimmons - Scott Gary Monaghan The IRA shooting of Martin McGartland
In January 1999, author and former IRA man turned informer Eamon Collins was beaten to death by the IRA in Newry, County Down. In May 1999, the IRA murdered Brendan 'Speedy' Fegan. They again justified their action by claiming that he was a leading drugs dealer. They shot him dead in a bar in Newry. In June 1999, the IRA murdered Paul Downey. Once again, they claimed that he had been a prominent drugs dealer. In June 1999, Martin McGartland, an RUC agent who infiltrated the IRA, narrowly escaped with his life after being shot in Whitley Bay, Northumbria, by IRA members. I have a copy of a letter sent to Mr McGartland by Northumbria police. It shows that they had arrested Henry Fitzsimmons and Scott Gary Monaghan, two well known Provisional IRA members, and that they were regarded as responsible for the attempt to kill Martin McGartland. However, even with all of that evidence, the Secretary of State considered that in the round there had no breach of the IRA ceasefire or the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
4.15 pm
In July 1999, the IRA abducted and murdered Charles Bennett, a New Lodge man. Also in July, the men arrested, and convicted in connection with the importation of arms from Florida were shown to be members of the Provisional IRA. It was proven that that activity was sanctioned at the highest level of the Provisional IRA. I will come back to that issue in my winding-up speech. Clearly, those men were members of the Provisional IRA. On the Noraid Internet site, they are described as IRA prisoners in an American jail. An article in 'GQ' magazine shows clearly the links between the Provisional IRA and those who were arrested, and asserts that they were part of an IRA gun running escapade. It is interesting that that activity was being planned at the same time as the organisation's representatives were sitting down with Senator George Mitchell and telling him how sincere they were about trying to achieve progress on decommissioning. While they were telling the senator that they were serious about decommissioning, they were importing guns from the United States to increase their stockpile of weaponry.
In August 1999, the IRA deported five men from Dungannon and one from Belfast for what they judged to be antisocial behaviour. I suppose that they consider their murdering and gunrunning to be civil and convivial. In October 2000, the IRA murdered Real IRA man, Joe O'Connor, in Ballymurphy, west Belfast. In April 2001, the IRA used the usual excuse of drug dealing to justify murdering Christopher O'Kane in Londonderry. In May 2001, the IRA again murdered someone who, it claimed, was a drug dealer. The victim, that time, was Paul Daly from Belfast. He was shot in front of his family.
In April 2001, Londonderry man, Gerald McFadden, from Rathlin Gardens in the Creggan estate was charged after he was found to have personal details of senior RUC officers. He has since been convicted of that offence. That demonstrates that the IRA was engaged in the targeting of RUC officers and that, once again, it was in contravention of the explicit requirement to use only peaceful and democratic means. In June 2001, the Provisional IRA raided Belfast docks and stole about £4 million. Also in June 2001, the IRA raided the house of an arms dealer in Athlone, County Westmeath. The attackers threatened him, tied up his wife and children, and stole over 100 shotguns, rifles and a quantity of ammunition.
In August 2001 came Colombia, another effort by the Provisional IRA to secure the peace process. I will deal with that issue in my winding-up speech. That was an added embarrassment for Sinn Féin, because all three men involved had party connections. According to the Government of their friend, Fidel Castro - to whom Mr Adams is soon going out to talk - one of the men, Connolly, was the accredited representative of Sinn Féin in Cuba and, no doubt, in South America. I have said James Monaghan was on the brigade staff at the headquarters of the Provisional IRA. He is their well known chief engineer and bomb maker. Such an individual would not have been a freelancer; he was on a mission sanctioned by the so-called Army Council of the Provisional IRA. They tried to tell us that those boys were really on holiday. I can think of more attractive places in which to holiday than the malaria-stricken jungles, where the opportunities for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to kidnap or kill must be greater than anywhere else in the world. Clearly, the Provisional IRA, at the very highest level, sanctioned that mission.
I cannot say anything about the arrest of IRA leader, Eddie Copeland, in north Belfast, as the matter is before the courts. I could have spoken of many other IRA failures to maintain its ceasefire. One wonders, after hearing that catalogue of events, what the IRA must do before the House imposes sanctions on Sinn Féin/IRA. I hope, in what may be the last act before the suspension of the Assembly, that the House will not again dodge the issue and that it will support the motion.
Link; http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports/010918d.htm
4.15 pm
In July 1999, the IRA abducted and murdered Charles Bennett, a New Lodge man. Also in July, the men arrested, and convicted in connection with the importation of arms from Florida were shown to be members of the Provisional IRA. It was proven that that activity was sanctioned at the highest level of the Provisional IRA. I will come back to that issue in my winding-up speech. Clearly, those men were members of the Provisional IRA. On the Noraid Internet site, they are described as IRA prisoners in an American jail. An article in 'GQ' magazine shows clearly the links between the Provisional IRA and those who were arrested, and asserts that they were part of an IRA gun running escapade. It is interesting that that activity was being planned at the same time as the organisation's representatives were sitting down with Senator George Mitchell and telling him how sincere they were about trying to achieve progress on decommissioning. While they were telling the senator that they were serious about decommissioning, they were importing guns from the United States to increase their stockpile of weaponry.
In August 1999, the IRA deported five men from Dungannon and one from Belfast for what they judged to be antisocial behaviour. I suppose that they consider their murdering and gunrunning to be civil and convivial. In October 2000, the IRA murdered Real IRA man, Joe O'Connor, in Ballymurphy, west Belfast. In April 2001, the IRA used the usual excuse of drug dealing to justify murdering Christopher O'Kane in Londonderry. In May 2001, the IRA again murdered someone who, it claimed, was a drug dealer. The victim, that time, was Paul Daly from Belfast. He was shot in front of his family.
In April 2001, Londonderry man, Gerald McFadden, from Rathlin Gardens in the Creggan estate was charged after he was found to have personal details of senior RUC officers. He has since been convicted of that offence. That demonstrates that the IRA was engaged in the targeting of RUC officers and that, once again, it was in contravention of the explicit requirement to use only peaceful and democratic means. In June 2001, the Provisional IRA raided Belfast docks and stole about £4 million. Also in June 2001, the IRA raided the house of an arms dealer in Athlone, County Westmeath. The attackers threatened him, tied up his wife and children, and stole over 100 shotguns, rifles and a quantity of ammunition.
In August 2001 came Colombia, another effort by the Provisional IRA to secure the peace process. I will deal with that issue in my winding-up speech. That was an added embarrassment for Sinn Féin, because all three men involved had party connections. According to the Government of their friend, Fidel Castro - to whom Mr Adams is soon going out to talk - one of the men, Connolly, was the accredited representative of Sinn Féin in Cuba and, no doubt, in South America. I have said James Monaghan was on the brigade staff at the headquarters of the Provisional IRA. He is their well known chief engineer and bomb maker. Such an individual would not have been a freelancer; he was on a mission sanctioned by the so-called Army Council of the Provisional IRA. They tried to tell us that those boys were really on holiday. I can think of more attractive places in which to holiday than the malaria-stricken jungles, where the opportunities for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to kidnap or kill must be greater than anywhere else in the world. Clearly, the Provisional IRA, at the very highest level, sanctioned that mission.
I cannot say anything about the arrest of IRA leader, Eddie Copeland, in north Belfast, as the matter is before the courts. I could have spoken of many other IRA failures to maintain its ceasefire. One wonders, after hearing that catalogue of events, what the IRA must do before the House imposes sanctions on Sinn Féin/IRA. I hope, in what may be the last act before the suspension of the Assembly, that the House will not again dodge the issue and that it will support the motion.
Link; http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports/010918d.htm
Wednesday, November 3, 1999
Sinn Fein fury after Belfast man is arrested over McGartland shooting.
Marty Says; Sinn Fein, IRA called for the; 'immediate release and an explanation from the NIO Security Minister Adam Ingram' of IRA terrorist and convicted bomber Harry Fitzsimmons (Fitzsimons). Northumbria Police, British Goverment (including Mi5) caved in to Sinn Fein, IRA and released both Harry Fitzsimmons and another convicted IRA bomber within 24 hours. The Northumbria Police Cover Up in The Martin McGartland attempted murder case continues.
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Sinn Fein fury after Belfast man is arrested over McGartland shooting.
The Birmingham Post (England)
November 3, 1999
The arrest of a Belfast man in connection with the attempted murder of IRA informer Martin McGartland sparked a furious protest last night.
The 32-year-old man was arrested earlier yesterday along with a 33-year-old man from Glasgow after a joint operation by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northumbria Police and Strathclyde Police.
The two are being questioned at an undisclosed police station in the Northumbria area.
Mr McGartland, aged 29, suffered six gunshot wounds in an attack at his home in Duchess Street in the Tyneside seaside resort of Whitley Bay in June.
Northumbria Police launched a massive manhunt and publicity appeal to find the gunmen, but said they were keeping an open mind on the motive while not discounting possible terrorist involvement.
At the time, Sinn Fein denied any IRA involvement in the attack. Last night, Sinn Fein Assembly member for north Belfast, Gerry Kelly, called for the Irishman's immediate release.
In a statement he said: "This morning's raid is an appalling act which saw one man arrested and his home and business badly damaged.
"Once again the RUC are involved in activities which run counter to the peace process and can only cause difficulties for those attempting to break the present political impasse.
"I am calling for the man's immediate release and an explanation from the NIO Security Minister Adam Ingram. We are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness."
The Royal Ulster Constabulary said it was a matter for Northumbria Police, which is leading the inquiry into Mr McGartland's shooting, to comment.
A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "The men were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to murder Mr McGartland under new cross border powers conferred by the Criminal Justice and Criminal Order Act 1994.
Mr McGartland infiltrated the republican movement on behalf of the RUC Special Branch during the 1980s and later published Fifty Dead Men Walking, recounting his experiences.
Northern Ireland peace broker George Mitchell last night went into the latest round of his marathon review of Ulster's Good Friday agreement by meeting Irish premier Bertie Ahern in Dublin.
The former United States senator briefed Mr Ahern on his nine weeks of talks so far with Northern Ireland's political party bosses ahead of making similar reports to Mr Tony Blair and President Clinton.
The senator meets the Prime Minister in London today and Mr Clinton in Washington later this week.
Story here:- http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60260146.html
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Sinn Fein fury after Belfast man is arrested over McGartland shooting.
The Birmingham Post (England)
November 3, 1999
The arrest of a Belfast man in connection with the attempted murder of IRA informer Martin McGartland sparked a furious protest last night.
The 32-year-old man was arrested earlier yesterday along with a 33-year-old man from Glasgow after a joint operation by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northumbria Police and Strathclyde Police.
The two are being questioned at an undisclosed police station in the Northumbria area.
Mr McGartland, aged 29, suffered six gunshot wounds in an attack at his home in Duchess Street in the Tyneside seaside resort of Whitley Bay in June.
Northumbria Police launched a massive manhunt and publicity appeal to find the gunmen, but said they were keeping an open mind on the motive while not discounting possible terrorist involvement.
At the time, Sinn Fein denied any IRA involvement in the attack. Last night, Sinn Fein Assembly member for north Belfast, Gerry Kelly, called for the Irishman's immediate release.
In a statement he said: "This morning's raid is an appalling act which saw one man arrested and his home and business badly damaged.
"Once again the RUC are involved in activities which run counter to the peace process and can only cause difficulties for those attempting to break the present political impasse.
"I am calling for the man's immediate release and an explanation from the NIO Security Minister Adam Ingram. We are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness."
The Royal Ulster Constabulary said it was a matter for Northumbria Police, which is leading the inquiry into Mr McGartland's shooting, to comment.
A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "The men were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to murder Mr McGartland under new cross border powers conferred by the Criminal Justice and Criminal Order Act 1994.
Mr McGartland infiltrated the republican movement on behalf of the RUC Special Branch during the 1980s and later published Fifty Dead Men Walking, recounting his experiences.
Northern Ireland peace broker George Mitchell last night went into the latest round of his marathon review of Ulster's Good Friday agreement by meeting Irish premier Bertie Ahern in Dublin.
The former United States senator briefed Mr Ahern on his nine weeks of talks so far with Northern Ireland's political party bosses ahead of making similar reports to Mr Tony Blair and President Clinton.
The senator meets the Prime Minister in London today and Mr Clinton in Washington later this week.
Story here:- http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60260146.html
Friday, May 30, 1997
Britain's former top IRA spy Martin McGartland cleared by jury within 10 minutes
Court clears top IRA mole
From the archive
21 May 1997
Britain's former top IRA spy was last night making a fresh bid to start a new life, after being cleared by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court, of trying to pervert the course of justice. Mr Martin McGartland, 27, who has lived under the name of Martin Ashe for the last six years, had claimed he was in fear of a terrorist death squad when he used duplicate driving licences to avoid a ban. The jury took just 10 minutes to find the author of Fifty Dead Men Walking, which is fast becoming a best seller, not guilty at the end of a five-day trial. Later, it was made clear he would be moving away from Tyneside, and the legal firm which represented him issued a statement criticising the moves which brought him to court and exposed him to danger from the IRA. It read: ''It is Mr McGartland's view that the prosecution should never have been brought in light of his services to the public in Northern Ireland. ''The prosecution has exposed him to further danger, which his resettlement on the mainland was meant to avoid. ''Mr McGartland believes that the prosecution was brought with total disregard for his own safety, and that the Crown showed no insight into the real and imagined dangers encountered by those living in the shadow of the IRA.'' The trial took place in secret after his barrister, Mr Glen Gatland, applied to Judge Denis Orde to make an order banning publication of proceedings until the end, as it was feared the IRA might try to target the court. During the trial the court was told that after fleeing Ulster, where it is claimed he helped save 50 lives by passing on secrets to the police, he became convinced he was being followed by potential assassins. Almost every time he speeded away to elude them he was stopped by police, and he used duplicate driving licences to escape a ban after totting up 12 speeding points in the summer of 1993. He could not reveal to police his reasons, as he feared detection. Magistrates thought he only had three points each time he appeared in court, because he handed in different licences. He was, however, on the verge of losing his licence under the totting-up procedure, and has since served a six-month ban. While in operation in Ulster, he was known as Agent Carol, and the information he passed on was from top level IRA sources, and was thought to have prevented numerous bombings and shootings, and exposed arms and explosives caches. Former Ulster intelligence gathering chief, Superintendent Ian Phoenix, who died in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, was said to have rated him as the most successful double agent he had known. Eventually, Mr McGartland's cover was blown and he was seized by IRA gunmen in August 1991, after helping the security forces for four years. He managed to escape from a third storey window, suffering serious head injuries which left him with partial brain damage.He was then given a new identity and relocated by Special Branch. Mr McGartland has taken action against Northumbria police after learning his new name and real name were being held on file. This led to a computer programmer being sacked from the force.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/court-clears-top-ira-mole-1.397341
From the archive
21 May 1997
Britain's former top IRA spy was last night making a fresh bid to start a new life, after being cleared by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court, of trying to pervert the course of justice. Mr Martin McGartland, 27, who has lived under the name of Martin Ashe for the last six years, had claimed he was in fear of a terrorist death squad when he used duplicate driving licences to avoid a ban. The jury took just 10 minutes to find the author of Fifty Dead Men Walking, which is fast becoming a best seller, not guilty at the end of a five-day trial. Later, it was made clear he would be moving away from Tyneside, and the legal firm which represented him issued a statement criticising the moves which brought him to court and exposed him to danger from the IRA. It read: ''It is Mr McGartland's view that the prosecution should never have been brought in light of his services to the public in Northern Ireland. ''The prosecution has exposed him to further danger, which his resettlement on the mainland was meant to avoid. ''Mr McGartland believes that the prosecution was brought with total disregard for his own safety, and that the Crown showed no insight into the real and imagined dangers encountered by those living in the shadow of the IRA.'' The trial took place in secret after his barrister, Mr Glen Gatland, applied to Judge Denis Orde to make an order banning publication of proceedings until the end, as it was feared the IRA might try to target the court. During the trial the court was told that after fleeing Ulster, where it is claimed he helped save 50 lives by passing on secrets to the police, he became convinced he was being followed by potential assassins. Almost every time he speeded away to elude them he was stopped by police, and he used duplicate driving licences to escape a ban after totting up 12 speeding points in the summer of 1993. He could not reveal to police his reasons, as he feared detection. Magistrates thought he only had three points each time he appeared in court, because he handed in different licences. He was, however, on the verge of losing his licence under the totting-up procedure, and has since served a six-month ban. While in operation in Ulster, he was known as Agent Carol, and the information he passed on was from top level IRA sources, and was thought to have prevented numerous bombings and shootings, and exposed arms and explosives caches. Former Ulster intelligence gathering chief, Superintendent Ian Phoenix, who died in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, was said to have rated him as the most successful double agent he had known. Eventually, Mr McGartland's cover was blown and he was seized by IRA gunmen in August 1991, after helping the security forces for four years. He managed to escape from a third storey window, suffering serious head injuries which left him with partial brain damage.He was then given a new identity and relocated by Special Branch. Mr McGartland has taken action against Northumbria police after learning his new name and real name were being held on file. This led to a computer programmer being sacked from the force.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/court-clears-top-ira-mole-1.397341
Wednesday, May 21, 1997
Northumbria Police - Mi5 - CPS Dirty Tricks - Martin McGartland ; Court clears top IRA mole.
Court clears top IRA mole
From the archive
21 May 1997
Britain's former top IRA spy was last night making a fresh bid to start a new life, after being cleared by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court, of trying to pervert the course of justice. Mr Martin McGartland, 27, who has lived under the name of Martin Ashe for the last six years, had claimed he was in fear of a terrorist death squad when he used duplicate driving licences to avoid a ban. The jury took just 10 minutes to find the author of Fifty Dead Men Walking, which is fast becoming a best seller, not guilty at the end of a five-day trial. Later, it was made clear he would be moving away from Tyneside, and the legal firm which represented him issued a statement criticising the moves which brought him to court and exposed him to danger from the IRA. It read: ''It is Mr McGartland's view that the prosecution should never have been brought in light of his services to the public in Northern Ireland. ''The prosecution has exposed him to further danger, which his resettlement on the mainland was meant to avoid. ''Mr McGartland believes that the prosecution was brought with total disregard for his own safety, and that the Crown showed no insight into the real and imagined dangers encountered by those living in the shadow of the IRA.'' The trial took place in secret after his barrister, Mr Glen Gatland, applied to Judge Denis Orde to make an order banning publication of proceedings until the end, as it was feared the IRA might try to target the court. During the trial the court was told that after fleeing Ulster, where it is claimed he helped save 50 lives by passing on secrets to the police, he became convinced he was being followed by potential assassins. Almost every time he speeded away to elude them he was stopped by police, and he used duplicate driving licences to escape a ban after totting up 12 speeding points in the summer of 1993. He could not reveal to police his reasons, as he feared detection. Magistrates thought he only had three points each time he appeared in court, because he handed in different licences. He was, however, on the verge of losing his licence under the totting-up procedure, and has since served a six-month ban. While in operation in Ulster, he was known as Agent Carol, and the information he passed on was from top level IRA sources, and was thought to have prevented numerous bombings and shootings, and exposed arms and explosives caches. Former Ulster intelligence gathering chief, Superintendent Ian Phoenix, who died in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, was said to have rated him as the most successful double agent he had known. Eventually, Mr McGartland's cover was blown and he was seized by IRA gunmen in August 1991, after helping the security forces for four years. He managed to escape from a third storey window, suffering serious head injuries which left him with partial brain damage.He was then given a new identity and relocated by Special Branch. Mr McGartland has taken action against Northumbria police after learning his new name and real name were being held on file. This led to a computer programmer being sacked from the force.
Story link;- http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/court-clears-top-ira-mole-1.397341
From the archive
21 May 1997
Britain's former top IRA spy was last night making a fresh bid to start a new life, after being cleared by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court, of trying to pervert the course of justice. Mr Martin McGartland, 27, who has lived under the name of Martin Ashe for the last six years, had claimed he was in fear of a terrorist death squad when he used duplicate driving licences to avoid a ban. The jury took just 10 minutes to find the author of Fifty Dead Men Walking, which is fast becoming a best seller, not guilty at the end of a five-day trial. Later, it was made clear he would be moving away from Tyneside, and the legal firm which represented him issued a statement criticising the moves which brought him to court and exposed him to danger from the IRA. It read: ''It is Mr McGartland's view that the prosecution should never have been brought in light of his services to the public in Northern Ireland. ''The prosecution has exposed him to further danger, which his resettlement on the mainland was meant to avoid. ''Mr McGartland believes that the prosecution was brought with total disregard for his own safety, and that the Crown showed no insight into the real and imagined dangers encountered by those living in the shadow of the IRA.'' The trial took place in secret after his barrister, Mr Glen Gatland, applied to Judge Denis Orde to make an order banning publication of proceedings until the end, as it was feared the IRA might try to target the court. During the trial the court was told that after fleeing Ulster, where it is claimed he helped save 50 lives by passing on secrets to the police, he became convinced he was being followed by potential assassins. Almost every time he speeded away to elude them he was stopped by police, and he used duplicate driving licences to escape a ban after totting up 12 speeding points in the summer of 1993. He could not reveal to police his reasons, as he feared detection. Magistrates thought he only had three points each time he appeared in court, because he handed in different licences. He was, however, on the verge of losing his licence under the totting-up procedure, and has since served a six-month ban. While in operation in Ulster, he was known as Agent Carol, and the information he passed on was from top level IRA sources, and was thought to have prevented numerous bombings and shootings, and exposed arms and explosives caches. Former Ulster intelligence gathering chief, Superintendent Ian Phoenix, who died in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, was said to have rated him as the most successful double agent he had known. Eventually, Mr McGartland's cover was blown and he was seized by IRA gunmen in August 1991, after helping the security forces for four years. He managed to escape from a third storey window, suffering serious head injuries which left him with partial brain damage.He was then given a new identity and relocated by Special Branch. Mr McGartland has taken action against Northumbria police after learning his new name and real name were being held on file. This led to a computer programmer being sacked from the force.
Story link;- http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/court-clears-top-ira-mole-1.397341
Wednesday, July 10, 1996
IRA members Jim McCarthy and Paul Hamilton and the 1991 IRA kidnapping of Martin McGartland are named
IRA members Jim McCarthy and Paul Hamilton and the 1991 IRA kidnapping of Martin McGartland - Named in Parliament.
The PPS (CPS), RUC nor PSNI will charge both of these men. I am on record as stating that both of these men are being protected by the British State because they are informers.
=================================================================================================
Early Day Motion
EDM 1138
TESTIMONY OF MARTIN MCGARTLAND
10.07.1996
10.07.1996
Bottomley, Peter
That this House recognises that it is a fiction to believe that Sinn Fein is separate from the IRA and that this is significantly underlined by the harrowing testimony of Martin McGartland, a former RUC agent within the Provisional IRA, given to the Peace Train Organisation in Dublin, in which he recounts how he was summoned to Sinn Fein headquarters in Belfast in August 1991, taken under gunpoint by Provisional IRA members and Gerry Adams' bodyguards, Jim McCarthy and Paul Hamilton, to a nearby estate where he was held for several hours until he escaped interrogation and murder by jumping out of the third storey bathroom; further notes that since his enforced exile from Northern Ireland, and the assumption of a new identity, his family has been persistently harassed by the Provisional IRA culminating, last week, in a brutal attack on his 24 year old brother, Joseph, who was bound and gagged, suspended upside down from a fence and beaten with scaffolding bars, sustaining many fractures and multiple injuries; and calls upon the Sinn Fein leadership to renounce such terrible violence and intimidation by the Provisional IRA, in line with the recommendations of the Mitchell Report which Gerry Adams says he supports.
Link:- http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=12293
The PPS (CPS), RUC nor PSNI will charge both of these men. I am on record as stating that both of these men are being protected by the British State because they are informers.
=================================================================================================
Early Day Motion
EDM 1138
TESTIMONY OF MARTIN MCGARTLAND
10.07.1996
10.07.1996
Bottomley, Peter
That this House recognises that it is a fiction to believe that Sinn Fein is separate from the IRA and that this is significantly underlined by the harrowing testimony of Martin McGartland, a former RUC agent within the Provisional IRA, given to the Peace Train Organisation in Dublin, in which he recounts how he was summoned to Sinn Fein headquarters in Belfast in August 1991, taken under gunpoint by Provisional IRA members and Gerry Adams' bodyguards, Jim McCarthy and Paul Hamilton, to a nearby estate where he was held for several hours until he escaped interrogation and murder by jumping out of the third storey bathroom; further notes that since his enforced exile from Northern Ireland, and the assumption of a new identity, his family has been persistently harassed by the Provisional IRA culminating, last week, in a brutal attack on his 24 year old brother, Joseph, who was bound and gagged, suspended upside down from a fence and beaten with scaffolding bars, sustaining many fractures and multiple injuries; and calls upon the Sinn Fein leadership to renounce such terrible violence and intimidation by the Provisional IRA, in line with the recommendations of the Mitchell Report which Gerry Adams says he supports.
Link:- http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=12293
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