Loyalist gun attack survivors enter mediation

Alan Erwin, Irish News, February 25th, 2025

SURVIVING victims of a loyalist gun attack on a village pub are to enter mediation aimed at settling legal actions over alleged security force collusion with the killers, the High Court heard yesterday.

The claims for damages in connection with the shootings at the Thierafurth Inn in Kilcoo, Co Down more than 30 years ago were listed for trial next month.

But counsel for the group revealed yesterday that the alternative process is to be explored with the PSNI and MoD defendants in a bid to resolve the lawsuits.

Patrick Lyttle KC told the court: “There has been progress and the proposal is that the cases will go for meditation.”

In November 1992 a UVF gang opened fire during a darts tournament in the pub, killing 42-year-old customer Peter McCormack and seriously wounding three others.

The case involves information about suspected collusion between members of the security forces and the loyalist unit operating in the south Down area at that time.

It followed the publication in 2016 of a Police Ombudsman report into the Loughinisland massacre.

In that attack UVF gunmen murdered six Catholic men watching a World Cup football match in June 1994. A film on the Loughinisland killings which premiered in 2017, No Stone Unturned, named suspects in the attack.

One of those referred to in the documentary as Person A was allegedly linked to the Thierafurth Inn shootings.

Damages have been sought by some of those who were at the pub for alleged misfeasance in public office by the state authorities.

Judge welcomes decision

Mr Justice Rooney, who was expected to determine the claims, welcomed the mediation process as “excellent news”.

Timetabling the cases for a further progress report in late March, he added: “I don’t anticipate a resolution by then, but it’s to keep a finger on the pulse.”

Outside court solicitor Gavin Booth of Phoenix Law, who represents the survivors of the attack, described it as a significant step forward.

“The events of that night, and the linked events in Co Down, live long in the memories of those who experienced it,” Mr Booth said.

“We welcome the pragmatic nature of the PSNI and Ministry of Defence entering into mediation to bring about a meaningful settlement for our clients.”

‘Hooded Men’ return to court with new compensation claim

Alan Erwin, Irish New, February 25th, 2025

LEGAL actions brought by the so-called Hooded Men over their treatment under interrogation at the height of the Troubles should be thrown out, the High Court heard yesterday.

Lawyers for the Ministry of Defence argued they are attempting to relitigate claims for damages which were settled back in the 1970s.

Paul McLaughlin KC urged a judge to strike out lawsuits as an abuse of process.

Surviving members of the group resisted the move, insisting new revelations about their alleged torture clears the way for them to seek further compensation.

The 14 Hooded Men were arrested during internment without trial and questioned by police and soldiers at British army facilities in Ballykelly, Co Derry in 1971.

Techniques used against them included being hooded, made to stand in a stress position against a wall and beaten if they fell, forced to listen to constant loud static noise, and deprived of sleep, food and water. In 1978 the European Court of Human Rights held that they had been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment but fell short of defining this as torture.

The case was thrust back into the spotlight in 2014 following the discovery of a memo from former Home Secretary Merlyn Rees about alleged methods approved by British ministers.

Claims already settled

Since then the Republic’s government mounted a failed attempt to have the European Court revise its earlier findings about the treatment of the men.

But a judge subsequently determined that what they were subjected to, if it occurred today, would constitute torture.

In a further development in 2023, the PSNI issued a formal apology for the actions and omissions of RUC officers who dealt with the Hooded Men while they were in custody.

Although the chief constable is a co-defendant in the current proceedings, police did not support the application to strike out the cases.

Mr McLaughlin argued, however, that all 14 of the men have already brought and settled claims.

“The plaintiffs are attempting to relitigate these actions 50 years later,” he said.

Citing finality enshrined by the legal doctrine of res judicata, the barrister added: “It is an abuse of process for a new set of proceedings to raise something that was subject to an existing judgment.”

Lawyers for the Hooded Men countered that new disclosures about the alleged extent of ministerial involvement in authorising their maltreatment means the early settlements were fraudulently obtained.

Dreadful episode of British oppression

Hugh Southey KC, appearing for some members of the group, told the court there was a focus on issues which were unknown during the 1970s.

“That means a claim for fraud can be brought,” he contended.

Master Harvey was also told that the MoD’s bid to strike out the actions was premature.

Judgment was reserved following closing submissions in the application.

Outside court solicitor Kevin Winters, who represents two of the men, described their treatment as a “dreadful episode of Britain’s oppression”.

Mr Winters added: “After all this time our clients are so relieved to witness the latest judicial spotlight being shone on one of the darkest examples of state conflict abuses.”

Sinn Féin accused of ‘disgraceful’ comments after McFarlane death

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, February 25th, 2025

SINN Féin has been accused of “disgraceful” public commentary after the death of former senior IRA man Brendan “Bik” McFarlane.

DUP MLA Phillip Brett told the assembly that there was “not a scintilla” of remorse from the republican party over McFarlane’s past violent actions.

McFarlane, known for taking part in the biggest escape in UK prison history, died after a short illness on Friday.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald paid tribute to him as “a great patriot who lived his life for the freedom and unity of Ireland”.

Mr Brett told MLAs yesterday that the public commentary from Sinn Féin after McFarlane’s death had been “disgraceful”.

He referred to McFarlane’s role in a gun and bomb attack on the Bayardo Bar on Belfast’s Shankill Road in 1975, which killed five people.

He said: “Three cowardly terrorists, led by McFarlane, set out to murder and maim their Protestant neighbours.

“They arrived at a packed bar, where they opened fire indiscriminately and planted a 10lb bomb at the entrance to ensure the maximum number of casualties among innocent Protestant men, women and children.

“The IRA, in its actions, killed five people, the youngest of whom, Linda Boyle, was just 17 years old, and injured 50 others.”

McFarlane was subsequently jailed but was one of 38 IRA prisoners who escaped from the Maze Prison in Co Antrim in 1983.

Mr Brett said: “In all the public pronouncements from Sinn Féin eulogising Mr McFarlane, there was not a single sentence, not a scintilla, of a ‘sorry’ for the victims of his evil deeds.

“The Sinn Féin member for North Belfast [Gerry Kelly], who represents the very place where the bomb went off, managed to say in his remarks that Mr McFarlane did all that he could in the struggle for Irish unity.

Brendan McFarlane died on Friday after a short illness

Funeral today

“Did that struggle include the murder of an innocent 17-year-old girl?

“The leader of Sinn Féin described him as a ‘great patriot’.

Mary Lou McDonald paid tribute to Brendan McFarlane.

“Do great patriots plant a 10lb bomb at the entrance to a bar to tear the heart out of the Shankill Road and then celebrate the murder of five people?”

Mr Brett added: “I was raised never to speak ill of the dead, and I recognise that a family is hurting, but my community and my constituency hurt every single day as a result of Mr McFarlane’s actions.

“Sinn Féin’s failure even to acknowledge that fact is nothing short of a disgrace.

“No amount of whitewashing or saying that the IRA’s actions were justified will ever stop my party calling out the rank hypocrisy of the members opposite.”

Last week Mr Kelly said McFarlane was a “republican activist all his life” who “gave all that he had to the struggle for a united Ireland”.

McFarlane’s funeral will take place in Belfast today.

Irish Times

Letters to the Editor,

Death of Bik McFarlane

Sir, – Last Friday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald announced she would not be attending the White House on St Patrick’s Day due to the United States’ apparent disregard for human rights and international law in relation to the people of the Gaza Strip (Sinn Féin opts out of White House St Patrick’s Day event, Home News, February 22nd).

On the same day, it was announced that former IRA terrorist Brendan McFarlane died in Belfast. McFarlane was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the sectarian murder of five Protestant civilians in a gun and bomb attack on a pub in Belfast in 1975.

On hearing the news of his death, McDonald paid tribute to McFarlane, saying he was “a great patriot who was dedicated to the struggle for the freedom and unity of Ireland, and the equality of its people”.

Why does the Sinn Féin leader oppose those who violate human rights in Gaza, but openly support someone who was convicted of mass murder in Ireland? – Yours, etc,

EUGENE O’DONOVAN,

London.

Sir, – With regard to the late Bik McFarlane (Former justice minister criticises McDonald’s tribute to late IRA figure ‘Bik’ McFarlane, Home News, February 24th) it seems that what Mary Lou McDonald thinks of as patriotism I think of as barbarism. – Yours, etc,

GARETH COLGAN,

Kilmacud,

Co Dublin.