Legacy ‘major issue’ for Catholic recruitment to PSNI

Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, February 13th, 2025

ONE of the north’s longest serving police officers believes legacy is a “major issue” for Catholics joining the PSNI.

Superintendent Gerry Murray was speaking after Chief Constable Jon Boutcher confirmed that just 27% of potential new recruits are from a Catholic background.

The fresh drive to recruit new officers has attracted around 3,500 applications, with just over one quarter, around 945, coming from the Catholic community.

Between 2001 and 2011 there was a 50:50 recruitment policy to the PSNI, which resulted in an even number of people from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds joining.

Mr Murray, chair of the Catholic Police Guild of Northern Ireland, joined the RUC in 1973 and is one of the PSNI’s best known Catholic officers.

Recruitment needs independent review

He has now called for an independent review of the PSNI, similar to that carried out by the Baroness Loise Casey into the culture and standards of the Metropolitan Police, which found widespread “discrimination” within the force.

Mr Murray said one stream of the review should look at “barriers to recruitment”.

“Remember in 10 years from now the first of the 50:50… they will be retiring after 35 years’ service,” he said.

“If you were to measure the police on red, amber, green, we are in the amber. But if we don’t do anything for the next 10 years to reverse this, we’ll be in the red to try and get people coming forward.”

Mr Murray said it is “all our responsibility to try to influence the Catholic community to look at the police as an opportunity”.

He also said legacy was “a major issue”.

In the past members of the RUC have been linked to collusion with loyalists, while the PSNI has been criticised for withholding key information about sectarian and other murders carried out during the Troubles.

Speaking in his capacity as chair of the Catholic Guild, Mr Murray said he has been approached in a professional capacity and by people at social and sporting events adding that “they do mention the aspect of truth and justice and how long do they have to wait”.

Aunt killed on Bloody Friday

Mr Murray revealed that his own family was impacted by the Troubles with his aunt Brigette Murray being killed in July 1972 when around 20 IRA bombs exploded in Belfast claiming the lives of nine people in what became known as Bloody Friday.

Superintendent Gerry Murray, chair of the Catholic Police Guild of Northern Ireland, answered questions from the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee

“We lost an aunt, Aunt Brigette… so I am victim myself, with regards to I want to know the truth,” he said.

“I am speaking with emotional intent, I too have suffered as many others have, and nobody was ever caught for Bloody Friday.”

Mr Murray said he is “very supportive of Jon Boutcher” adding that “he gets it, he gets it about Catholics not coming forward”.

Boucher has led with purpose

He said he believes the chief constable “will do everything in his power” to encourage Catholics to join the PSNI.

Mr Murray revealed that a St Brigid’s Day Mass was held at the Police College in Garnerville, east Belfast, earlier this month.

He also said the PSNI’s GAA team, which he helped to found, is “progressing”.

“If you were to measure the police on red, amber, green, we are in the amber. But if we don’t do anything for the next 10 years to reverse this, we’ll be in the red

“So there are positives but there’s a long, long way to go… and I do believe a Baroness Casey-style review would do a lot, I believe, to assist the Catholic community in coming forward.”

SDLP Policing Board member Mark H Durkan said: “Jon Boucher as chief constable has led with purpose, but when it comes to the perception of the police service the harm had been done and confidence reduced.

“The reasons for this go further and deeper, particularly when it comes to legacy issues which have been deeply damaging.”

NIECE OF FIRST PERSON DISAPPEARED JOE LYNSKEY AWAITS TEST RESULTS ON REMAINS

'I am getting more anxious as time goes on ... I really hope wait is over'

Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, February 13th, 2025

The niece of the first person known to have been disappeared by the IRA has said she is hoping and praying her long wait to give her uncle a Christian burial is over.

Joe Lynskey, a former Cistercian monk from the Beechmount area of west Belfast, was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972.

In a major breakthrough, remains were recovered from a plot in a graveyard in rural Monaghan last November.

The plot belongs to the family of the former Bishop of Ferns, Brendan Comiskey.

The family is waiting on DNA testing to confirm if the remains are those of Mr Lynskey, ending a wait lasting more than half a century.

It is hoped the results will be available in the next few weeks.

His niece Maria said the wait for confirmation has been difficult.

“My memory of Joe was as a quiet and decent man, that is my impression of who he was — a gentle person,” she told the Belfast Telegraph.

Grateful to Comiskey family

“It must have been very traumatic for the Comiskey family, and I am grateful that they agreed to the search.

“I know I wouldn't want my mother's grave disturbed and yet they agreed to that — to even say thank you to them wouldn't be enough.

“I am getting more anxious as time goes on, but I know this is what my father would have wanted, I really hope the wait is now over.”

As a young man, Mr Lynskey had joined a religious order and trained to be a monk.

Even after he left the order he remained a devout Catholic.

His niece said that he deserves a proper funeral and burial and hopes the wait is now over.

“From speaking to the other families, I know there is a comfort from being able to bring a loved one home and give them a proper funeral and burial,” she added.

Mr Lynskey went missing in 1972 and for over 30 years his relatives believed he had emigrated to America. There were even unconfirmed sightings of him relayed back to Ireland.

It was not until confessions made by fellow IRA member Dolours Price in 2010 that he was added to the list of the so-called Disappeared — people murdered and secretly buried by republicans. In November, after information was passed to investigators, remains were recovered from the grave of the mother of former Bishop Comiskey.

The remains have gone through extensive testing, involving matching them with the DNA of Mr Lynskey's closest surviving relatives.

Despite the complicated process, it is hoped that the identification can be completed soon.

Secrecy over Disappeared has ended

The secrecy surrounding the Disappeared meant that their stories were never meant to be told.

However, the Disney+ series Say Nothing, based on the book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe, has turned the international spotlight on the cases.

They include Eamon Molloy, who was 21 when he vanished from his north Belfast home on July 1, 1975.

The first of the Disappeared to be recovered, he had been missing for 25 years when in May 1999, the IRA placed his body in a coffin, above ground at Old Faughart Cemetery, four miles outside Dundalk.

That same year, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR), was established between the British and Irish governments.

It included an amnesty for anyone who provided information that led to the recovery of remains.

The IRA later revealed details of eight more people they abducted and buried in the 1970s.

However, there was very little progress until, in 2005, when Geoff Knupfer was appointed lead forensic scientist and investigator for the ICLVR with Jon Hill as his deputy.

The two English detectives have since been successful in recovering all but four of the Disappeared victims. The remaining four are Mr Lynskey, Columba McVeigh, Seamus Maguire and Robert Nairac.

Mr Knupfer retired in 2023 with Mr Hill taking over as the lead investigator.

Maria Lynskey said: “I feel for those still waiting. I hope the family of Columba (McVeigh) get information soon, I really do.

“All we can do now is wait and hope... the support from Jon Hill is brilliant.

“I don't like to bother him too much but I know that they are working hard, and will always make sure if there are any developments to let us know. I thank them for that, they are good people.”

Thought to be 17 disappeared

There are thought to be 17 Disappeared — 16 murdered by the IRA and one, Seamus Ruddy, by the INLA.

All but one — widowed mother of 10 Jean McConville — were men.

The cases of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee — killed together after they admitted working for British intelligence — are also featured in Say Nothing.

Their bodies were recovered in Coghalstown, Co Meath, in June 2015.

The three still missing include Mr Maguire (26), who disappeared after leaving his home at Aghagallon, near Lurgan, sometime in 1974.

Also still missing is Mr McVeigh, who was 19 when he disappeared in 1975. Searches in the remote Bragan Bog, near Emyvale in Co Monaghan, failed to find his remains.

Mr Nairac, who was from Gloucestershire and lived in Sunderland, was 29 when he was abducted outside a pub at Dromintee in south Armagh in May 1977.

A search for his remains on farmland at Faughart near Dundalk ended last October without success.

The other Disappeared — whose bodies have been recovered — are Seamus Ruddy, Brendan Megraw, Peter Wilson, Brian McKinney, John McClory, Danny McIlhone, Charles Armstrong, Gerard Evans and Eugene Simons.

Anyone with information on the Disappeared can call the confidential phone number 00353 1 602 8655, or make contact by post to Confidential Post Box ICLVR, PO BOX 10827, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Comment

The Disappeared cases show that a one size fits all is the wrong way forward. The families should have never have had to go through this. The murderers and those who ordered the hidden burials and murders bring shame to the whole island of Ireland. Respect must be shown to the families of the Disappeared and hopefully the remaining bodies will be found. Whatever deal was done to recover the bodies can not be criticised by outsiders as the families saw it as the way forward to have their loved ones remains recovered. God only knows what the families have gone through and are still going through. A choice was given to the families with no prosecutions and we must respect their choice. Unless you have been in the shoes of a victim you haven't the right to judge as it's not a nice place to be in. I would like to add that I have the greatest admiration for all the Disappeared families and hope and pray that all the bodies are recovered soon. I believe both the Irish and British governments should give recognition to all the "Disappeared" families for their fight over so many years and the horrible circumstances of those families. Admiration doesn't go far enough.

Raymond McCord, Victims Campaigner

The Truth Recovery Process is an option we propose for conditional amnesties to former combatants who are willing to come forward and provide information to Victims and Survivors through a mediation process. It could only be activated by victims and survivors who wished to avail of it. We believe it provides a viable alternative, particularly for those families who cannot avail of the courts.

Padraig Yeates, Secretary, Truth Recovery Process CLG

Omeath Inquiry

Woman burned in Omagh bombing 'given last rites four times'

BBC Updated / Wednesday, 12 Feb 2025 16:55

A woman who suffered horrific burns in the Omagh bombing has explained how she was given only a 20% chance of survival and was administered the last rites four times in hospital following the explosion.

Donna-Marie McGillion, who was placed into a coma for more than six weeks, said she had believed there would not be a terrorist attack in the town in August 1998 as the Good Friday Agreement had been signed months earlier.

She had been due to get married a week after the Real IRA blast which devastated the centre of the Co Tyrone town.

Ms McGillion eventually married her partner Garry, who was also seriously injured in the explosion, the following year.

The Omagh Bombing Inquiry was told that Ms McGillion’s injuries were so severe that at first her family could only recognise her through her engagement ring.

The inquiry is hearing personal statements from witnesses and people who were injured in the bombing.

It was set up by the UK government to examine whether the explosion, which killed 29 people including the mother of unborn twins, could have been prevented by the authorities.

Shopping trip

On the day of the attack, Ms McGillion had travelled into Omagh with her partner, her partner’s sister, Tracy, and his niece, Breda Devine.

They were shopping for shoes for 20-month-old Breda, who was to be flower girl at the wedding.

Ms McGillion told the inquiry that police had moved people to the lower part of the town due to a bomb alert in the afternoon.

She said: "We thought, we had had the Good Friday Agreement, a bomb was never going to go off in Omagh. It was only a (bomb) scare.

"We thought get in, get what we need and get out.

"Looking back on it now, it was a case of, we have the peace process, this is not going to happen, it has passed us now.

"When the (bomb) scare came we thought it was just somebody being silly."

Donna-Marie McGillion said that she suffered 65% third-degree burns to her face

Ms McGillion said she has no memory of the explosion.

She was taken to Omagh Hospital but later airlifted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

"I had a 20% chance of survival when I landed at the Royal," she added.

She was placed in an induced coma for six-and-a-half weeks.

Counsel to the inquiry Paul Greaney read from Ms McGillion’s statement where she said she had received the last rites in hospital on four occasions.

She told the inquiry that she did not know what had happened to her when she was woken up.

"I remember when they brought me round, my mum, who was my strength, and my dad and my two brothers were all around my bed."

Ms McGillion said she believed she had been injured in a car crash but learnt about the Omagh bomb from a news bulletin on the radio.

Her statement said: "The trauma from my time in ICU and the burns unit will always haunt me.

"At times I still feel like I'm back on the ventilators which kept me alive and forced my lungs to breathe in and out.

"I was in extreme pain. It is very hard to explain, like getting burnt by an iron all over your body and multiplying it 200 times over.

"I couldn’t move or lift my hand, I couldn’t even move my face because of the pain. I guess my eyes had to tell others how I was feeling."

She added: "I suffered 65% third-degree burns to my face, upper body front and back, both arms, hands and lower leg.

"I suffered a large laceration to my forehead and shrapnel wounds. I also sustained lung damage and damage to my ear drum.

"After being discharged from hospital, for around three years after I had to wear a plastic mask on my face.

"I had so many different surgeries over the last 26 years that I have lost count."

Ms McGillion said she still lives with daily pain and has had to become used to people staring at her facial scarring.

"Sometimes I wish people would just ask, rather than stare," she said, "I don’t mind saying this is what happened.

"I would rather they ask rather than stare and wonder."

Reflecting on the tragedy, she told the inquiry: "It is when you go into town and you see people, you know people have lost loved ones and people were injured, you see the pain and you see the hurt.

"It is a regular occurrence, it is there and it is never going away."

She said that when she eventually married Garry - in March 1999 - it was a happy occasion, but that "one person was missing" because Breda had been killed in the explosion.

‘It was one of those moments when I was proud of Omagh’

Ms McGillion said there had been a huge turnout of support from the community on her wedding day.

"It was one of those moments when I was proud to be from Omagh, proud of the people around me.

"The realisation of the support and the network that was around and how everybody really did will for us and wanted us to make this a really good experience for us."

Donna-Marie McGillion's husband told the inquiry how he guilt over the death of his niece, Breda, in the bombing has haunted him.

Garry McGillion, who suffered severe injuries, said there had been a "real party atmosphere" in the town centre on the day of the attack.

"It was the start of our life together, a new chapter in both our lives," he said.

Mr McGillion said that his wife was pushing Breda in a pram.

"We had come across the street, speaking to people, people were wishing us the best of luck for the following week.

"I stepped in between the cars, onto the footpath and it was like a massive electric shock.

"When it happened and I got myself back onto my feet it was as if somebody was turning the radio up.

"It started with nothing and then it went to a dull sound and then I could hear alarms going off and then it went to full blast.

"I could hear children shouting for their mums, mums shouting for their children, people shouting for loved ones."

Mr McGillion said that a cloud of dust had settled over the area.

"The area was dark. You could taste it, you could smell it, you could feel the dust. It was like you had closed your eyes and opened them up to a different world.

"There was a high-pitched squeal in my ears and it wasn’t until I put my hands up I realised my shirt was on fire. I ripped my shirt off.

"I put my hand up to my ear and I realised that I had a hole in the back of my head."

Mr McGillion told the inquiry that he later realised that parts of his body were on fire.

"At that time I didn’t realise how bad it was. My main thought was with Donna-Marie and Breda and Tracy."

He said that he found his wife underneath a large shop sign.

Mr McGillion asked her three times where Breda was, and on the third occasion she moved her hand and it was still on the pram.

He told the inquiry that he managed to move the sign and pull the two of them clear.

Images have haunted me for 26 years

"Those images will forever be engraved on my brain. I will not go into the detail of these.

"Trust me, they have haunted me every day and night for the past 26 years."

Garry McGillion described his physical pain as 'unbelievable' and 'unbearable'

He said he took Breda into his arms and shouted towards her mother Tracy.

"I told her I had her, I’d got her, I’ll look after her."

He ran up the street and handed Breda over to a traffic warden to receive medical help before attempting to return to the bomb site.

"This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life.

"Breda was still breathing, I felt her heartbeat but I knew that she needed urgent help.

"I’ve learnt over the past 26 years that you have to make difficult choices, that you will neither like nor want.

"This is one of the most harrowing memories I have.

"As to this day I can still feel Breda’s heartbeat on my chest."

Mr McGillion added: "Holding her, there was the faintest little heartbeat. I knew I had to get her out.

"To this day I still feel that heartbeat."

When he attempted to help his sister and partner, he was told he needed to go to get medical help.

"I remember people carrying bottles of water and pouring bottles of water over me, over my burns.

Breda never woke up

Mr McGillion was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He had suffered third-degree burns to more than a third of the right side of his body and the back of his head.

"The physical pain was hard to describe. It was unbelievable, unbearable."

But he said the worst part was when he was told in hospital that Breda had died.

"I knew something was wrong. My dad came in, my mum came in with the doctors, a lovely priest.

"I thought they were coming to tell me that Donna-Marie had passed away.

"They told me unfortunately that Breda didn’t waken.

"It was like somebody had ripped part of my heart out and that part is still missing today."

He said he has struggled with guilt over the death of Breda and "that is something I will carry with me to the day I die.

"Although it wasn’t my fault, I just feel that I was there to protect her and I couldn’t.

Mr McGillion told the inquiry the first thing he did when he left hospital was to visit Breda’s grave.

"I didn’t get to say goodbye, that was the hardest part. I didn’t get the chance to grieve because I wasn’t there.

"Watching the TV in hospital, the news report came up that it was Breda’s funeral, watching the pain on my dad’s face, on my mum’s face, my younger brothers and sisters, I just felt so guilty."

Mr McGillion added: "Although the explosion of the Omagh bomb changed my life forever, I believe it has made me a stronger person than I ever was.

"This inquiry provides some hope for all those that lost loved ones and survivors, but also the wider community to get the answers that they deserve."

‘I could feel the faintest little heartbeat, I had to get her out’

Freya McClements, Irish Times, February 13th, 2025

Omagh bombing survivor Garry McGillion tried to save 20-month-old niece Breda Devine

A survivor of the 1998 Omagh bombing has told how he tried to save the life of his niece, one of the youngest victims of the atrocity, despite his own serious injuries.

The chair of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, Lord Turnbull, praised the bravery and heroism of Garry McGillion, saying “even though you yourself sustained severe burns and other very serious injuries ... you had the clarity of thought and the determination to do what was necessary to try and save the life of one of the most vulnerable victims”.

Giving evidence to the inquiry yesterday, Mr McGillion said he and his fiancee, Donna Marie, had been due to get married the week after the bombing, and had gone into Omagh that day along with his sister, Tracy Devine, to buy shoes for her 20-month-old daughter Breda, who was to be a flower girl at her uncle’s wedding.

Breda Devine was among 31 people, including unborn twins, who were killed when the dissident republican bomb exploded in the centre of the Co Tyrone town on August 15th, 1998. The inquiry, which is taking place in the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh, has already heard pen portraits of the victims and is currently hearing evidence from people who were injured in, or witnessed the Real IRA explosion and its aftermath.

Mr McGillion told the inquiry that until the explosion, August 15th had been a happy day with “a real party atmosphere”, with lots of people in Omagh coming up to them to congratulate them about their forthcoming wedding.

They had been in the shoe shop getting Breda’s feet measured when they became aware of the bomb warning, and followed the instructions of police to evacuate towards the lower end of Market Street.

“Donna Marie had been pushing Breda in the pushchair ... I stepped in between the car on to the footpath and there was just a massive electric shock.

“When it had happened, and I got myself back on to my feet again, it was as if somebody was turning the radio up. It started nothing, then went to a dull sound, then I could hear alarms going off, then it went to full blast, I could hear children shouting for their mums, mums shouting for their children.”

Mr McGillion’s shirt was on fire, and he had a wound to the back of his head, “but I didn’t realise the extent, didn’t realise how bad it was. My main priority ... was with Donna Marie and Breda and Tracy, I had to find them”.

He found Donna Marie with a shop sign on top of her, but was unable to lift it; he saw her hand move, still holding on to Breda’s pram.

“I went again the second time, and I don’t know how I managed it, but I moved the sign ... I was able to grab Donna Marie by the belt and pull her out, and I grabbed the pushchair as well at the same time, I pulled Breda out.

Main priority was to get Breda out

“My main priority was to give Breda help, I took her over to Tracy, told her I had her, I’ve got her, I’ll look after her.”

He ran with her in his arms to the top of the town, where he handed her over to a traffic warden who took her to hospital.

Holding her, Mr McGillion said, he could feel “the faintest little heartbeat, I knew I had to get her out, and to this day, I still feel that heartbeat.”

Mr McGillion was seriously injured, and suffered third-degree burns over more than a third of the right side of his body and head, as well as extensive shrapnel injuries and other wounds.

Donna Marie and his sister Tracy were also badly hurt.

When he learned his niece Breda had died, he felt “like somebody ripped part of my heart out. That part is still missing today”.

Mr McGillion and Donna Marie set another date for their wedding while they were still in hospital; when they married in March 1999, crowds of people from Omagh went to the church to support them.

They kept their wedding preparations exactly the same, Mr McGillion said. “The only thing that changed was that one person was missing.”

The inquiry continues.