Sinn Fein supplied priority list of on the run IRA suspects to London

Sunday Life, August 35rd, 2025

A priority list of 36 on-the-run IRA suspects — 22 of them jailbreakers — was handed to the government by Sinn Fein in November 2000.

The details were revealed in a batch of files declassified last week by the National Archives in London.

Not on the list is Hyde Park bomb suspect John Downey, whose case sparked a Stormont crisis in 2014 after unionists claimed they had no knowledge of 'comfort letters' given to at least 187 paramilitaries freeing them of any risk of prosecution.

Warrants

The on-the-runs (OTRs) were republicans wanted for questioning in either Great Britain or Northern Ireland for crimes committed during the Troubles.

In the newly released papers is a letter marked 'confidential' sent from the Rt Hon the Lord Williams of Mostyn QC to Secretary of State Peter Mandelson on November 30, 2000, informing him of “a decision taken in relation to one name from the Sinn Fein list”.

Lord Mostyn writes said: “Following investigation by the RUC, the Director of Public Prosecutions has concluded that there is no outstanding direction for the prosecution of John James Drumm in Northern Ireland.

“There are no warrants in existence and Drumm is not wanted in Northern Ireland for arrest, questioning or charge by police.

“The RUC is not aware of any interest from any other police force in the United Kingdom.

“Drumm was named as Seamus Drumm on the original Sinn Fein list, where he appears as name number 18.

“Work continues on the remaining names, and I will return to you as soon as I have further information for you.”

It was accompanied by a list of 36 OTRs supplied by Sinn Fein and notes for the government regarding the status of each republican, some of them suspected of involvement in a string of IRA offences during the Troubles.

The list is dominated by prison escapees, including 13 who were part of the mass breakout at the high-security Maze jail in 1983, when 38 inmates armed with guns and knives seized a lorry in the prison compound and killed a prison officer.

On it is Seamus Clarke, who alongside fellow IRA men Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane and Peter 'Skeet' Hamilton had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the Bayardo Bar bombing and shooting attack on the Shankill Road in 1975 in which five were killed.

Also appearing is Dermot McNally, who was serving a life sentence for causing explosions.

Andrew Martin was wanted on conspiracy charges, while Kevin Barry Artt, Pól Brennan and Terrence Kirby were arrested in the US between 1992 and 1994 and fought lengthy legal battles against extradition.

The other Maze escapees on the list were Seamy Campbell, James Clarke, Dermot Finucane, Gerard Fryers, Tony Kelly, Anthony McAllister and Paddy McIntyre.

Sinn Fein asked for four of the eight Provos who broke out of Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast in 1980 to get comfort letters, which former DUP leader Peter Robinson dubbed “get out of jail free cards” during the 2014 OTRs crisis. Using handguns that had been smuggled into the prison, the IRA men took prison officers hostage and shot their way out.

They were Angelo Fusco, Paul 'Dingus' Magee, Robert 'Fats' Campbell and Gerry Sloan, all members of the IRA's so-called 'M60 Squad' because of their use of the powerful machine-gun.

They murdered Captain Herbert Westmacott (28), the most senior of four SAS officers to die in the Troubles, in Belfast in 1980.

Two more jailbreakers named on the note were Nessan Quinlivan and Pearse McAuley, who escaped from Brixton prison in 1981 using a gun smuggled into jail in a shoe.

Strabane man McAuley was convicted along with three Limerick men of killing Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996 during their Provo gang's attempted robbery of a post office van. Quinlivan was awaiting an appeal against extradition to Britain on bombing charges.

Two men on the list made separate escapes from Magilligan in 1975.

Explosives

Danny Keenan, who was awaiting sentencing for explosives offences, lay in a skip workmen were using and left with them.

Malachy McCann was the IRA's one-time director of purchasing, responsible for buying weapons and bringing them to Ireland. He bolted the same year from the same jail after hiding in a prison laundry van.

Another prison escapee named was Liam Averill, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of two Protestants.

He escaped from the Maze in 1997 after dressing as a woman, mingling with a group of prisoners' families attending a Christmas party and fleeing on the coach out with them.

Also on the list was Rita O'Hare, who was wanted for the attempted murder of warrant officer Frazer Paton in Belfast in 1971 and once ran Sinn Fein's office in Washington DC.

Eibhlin Glenholmes was wanted in Britain on nine warrants covering a range of offences including murder, attempted murder, firearms and explosives.

Owen Carron, who succeeded Bobby Sands as the Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone after his death in the 1981 hunger strike, was charged after an AK47 rifle was found in a car in which he was travelling in 1986.

He was granted bail to contest that year's Fermanagh-South Tyrone by-election, which he lost before skipping bail and fleeing to the Republic.

Anthony Duncan was wanted over bomb attempts in Bognor Regis and Brighton in 1994 in which explosives were tied to bicycles.

Michael Rogan was a suspected senior IRA intelligence officer wanted in connection with a 1996 double car bomb attack which killed a British soldier at Thiepval military barracks. He was later acquitted of those charges.

Derry woman Marion Coyle was also listed. She and fellow IRA member Eddie Gallagher kidnapped industrialist Tiede Herrema near his Limerick home in 1975, with Coyle later handed a 15-year sentence and Gallagher 20 years.

Turmoil

The note beside her name in the government file reads: “Originally untraced. A letter from Mr Adams was unhelpful in this regard as it dealt only with offences committed in Ireland.

“The Northern Ireland Office has, through Special Branch, found mention of her on the Police National Computer as wanted for questioning in relation to a conspiracy to cause explosions in 1976 and fingerprints found in the Southampton bomb factory in 1974.”

Another IRA member listed in the note would later find himself murdered by his own organisation.

Kevin McGuigan was shot dead in front of his wife at their home in Belfast in 2015, an incident which threw Stormont into turmoil. The IRA blamed him for killing ex-Belfast commander Gerard 'Jock' Davison in the Markets area three months earlier.

The other names completing the list were John McClafferty, Patrick McVeigh, John Fusco, Michael Mulvenna, Edward Rooney and Richard O'Callaghan.

Vote for unity, keep Northern Ireland: Sinn Féin is thinking the unthinkable

The republican old guard would be horrified at the idea of retaining Stormont in a united Ireland but it makes sense if the party wants to win over unionists

Sam McBride, Sunday Independent and Sunday Life, August 3rd, 2025

There was a time when Sinn Féin campaigned under the slogans "No Return to Stormont” and "Smash Stormont”. Increasingly, it is inching towards a once-unthinkable slogan: "Keep Northern Ireland.”

The party's reasoning is both simple and logical. Yet it hasn't been loudly advertising this drastic evolution in its most foundational policy. So discreet has the party been about this new thinking that many of its supporters will scoff at the idea such a change has happened at all.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties a fortnight ago, former Sinn Féin MP Francie Molloy told me that he believed devolution in Northern Ireland should continue after Irish unity.

He said: "I would be an advocate, actually, of saying that the Assembly should be maintained in an all-­Ireland — devolved from ­Dublin instead of London — and that we ­accommodate unionism within the new structures within an all-Ireland.”

There is particular significance in this coming from someone like Molloy. He is not the new sanitised version of a Sinn Féin politician but a veteran ­republican who stood for election when the IRA was murderously active.

A very different Sinn Féin politician — who would probably never have been attracted to the party had the IRA not stopped killing — is ­Caoimhe Archibald, the Stormont Economy Minister. She also spoke in Glenties and I asked her if she could support Stormont enduring.

‘Transitional arrangements’

She said she could accept it as part of "transitional arrangements”, but her preference would ultimately be a single centralised parliament governing the entire island. Molloy also went on to say that he believed it would soon become clear to unionists after a period that keeping Stormont would not be necessary — essentially because they would not face discrimination.

That would put the onus on Sinn Féin, and nationalism more broadly, to woo unionists into giving up Northern Ireland years after Irish unity, rather than the more familiar republican ­approach, still widely vocalised online, that if unionists lost a border poll they could either accept what was offered to them or get on the next boat. This shift has been quietly under way for some time. Sinn Féin's 2016 paper "Towards a United Ireland” said "all of us who wish to see a united Ireland need to be open to considering transitional ­arrangements” which could mean "continued devolution to Stormont”.

The significance of this is that it ­accepts the continuation of Northern Ireland. Keeping Stormont only makes sense if you're keeping Northern Ireland — including the Northern Ireland Civil Service, the PSNI, the Northern Ireland football team and so on. It's no coincidence that more Sinn Féin politicians are willing to utter the once-forbidden words "Northern Ireland”.

Keeping Stormont would mean keeping the Border. It would no longer be an international frontier. Instead, it would become like the line between England and Scotland or California and Nevada: a legal border within a national territory. There would be different laws on either side of that line, but other elements would be harmonised — the currency, probably the road signs and perhaps the health system.

It wouldn't be the sort of united Ireland Bobby Sands would recognise. An internal Sinn Féin pamphlet in the 1980s stated: "We do not approach elections from a reformist viewpoint — we do not believe that the six counties can be 'democratised'.”

Closer to Good Friday than Easter Monday 1916

Long ago, Sinn Féin moved to implicitly repudiate that attitude, but keeping Stormont would be the acceptance that even after final victory — if that ever came — this place republicanism once existed to destroy would endure. It might not be a score draw between unionism and nationalism but it would be closer to the Good Friday Agreement notion of compromise than the nationalistic purity of those who entered the GPO in 1916 or Long Kesh in the 1970s.

This shift partly involves a recognition that accommodating unionism isn't just about being nice; it's about hard-headed self-interest. If the most talented unionists are made to feel like a new dispensation is hostile to them, or just feel that they don't quite fit in, some of them will leave. Those with the means to do so would overwhelmingly be the educated middle classes. A sudden brain drain at the point of economic and social peril would, at best, be problematic and, at worst, disastrous.

But perhaps equally significant is the growing northern republican appreciation of how lukewarm much of the rest of the island is to the ideal that fires their hearts. Polls that indicate massive southern support for unity are almost meaningless — not because they're inaccurate but because most of those answering the question have thought little about what unity would actually involve.

Far more telling is polling that delves into southern opposition to changing the flag, the anthem, paying to support northerners, joining the Commonwealth, or a host of other practical and symbolic compromises. With a southern electorate that is rebellious in referendums, the nightmare scenario for nationalism would be a northern vote for unity alongside a fearful southern electorate voting no.

While that seems unlikely, the electorate is changing. A growing migrant population will not be swayed by ­nationalistic nostalgia — and even many people whose families have lived here for centuries won't simply vote for any form of unity, regardless of the consequences.

The greatest southern fear will be that the remarkable country they've built could be destroyed by the sort of drastic reforms necessary to incorporate a disputatious and economically underdeveloped North.

Keeping the Border potentially solves that problem — largely keeping Northern Ireland and its problems at arms-length from the rest of the island, which could mostly continue as it was. Yes, there would be unionist TDs in the Dáil and a subsidy to be shipped North every year, but the alternative of dissolving both jurisdictions and starting almost from scratch would be avoided.

All of this is happening at a time when what had been post-Brexit momentum towards a border poll feels like it is receding. By the time that border poll comes, Sinn Féin's position might be far more moderate than some hope — and others fear.

Too much hate to talk about an all-island league

Ivan Little, Sunday Life, August 3rd, 2025

Let's just blow the fool time whistle on the fantasy football of an all-Ireland league.

For the events of the last few weeks have only served to reinforce my long-held certainty that the very idea of a united football island is bordering on the ridiculous.

A north-south game between Derry City and Bohemians of Dublin in the League of Ireland last week was marred by apparently pre-arranged clashes between 'fans' of both clubs inside and outside the Ryan McBride Brandywell.

Earlier in the month Linfield and Shelbourne met in a European match at Windsor Park and it was not a pretty sight. Or sound.

From the kick off several hundred young morons who claim to be Linfield supporters, and ironically call themselves Blue Unity (BU), sang sectarian and paramilitary supporting songs with a UVF flag in their midst which should have been, but wasn't, removed by security teams.

Some Shels fans chanted Orange Bs — which they had also apparently directed in Dublin at a Linfield player who also doubles up as an Antrim GAA football star.

Linfield were fined heavily and threatened with a partial stadium ban as a result of BU's shameful actions at Windsor Park. Fans were angered that sanctions weren't imposed on their opponents but it could have been worse for the Blues.

What the football authorities wouldn't have heard was the mob, dressed in black Blue Unity T-shirts, singing even more offensive UVF songs on their way in and out of the stadium.

Excesses

The year before for a European game, Shamrock Rovers came north to play Larne at Windsor and some fans loudly voiced their support for the IRA.

The Dublin club were later fined for derogatory songs about the late Queen at a game in London against Chelsea who were also disciplined for their fans' excesses.

I've watched Linfield playing repeatedly in the south down the years and trouble has followed them around the island, and it hasn't always been only them to blame.

Obviously the disgraceful riots at a game against Dundalk in 1979 — not long after the Narrow Water massacre and the murder of Lord Mountbatten — were the worst ever seen and the Oriel Park fans and the Garda were culpable as well as Linfield supporters, not to mention local stone-throwing residents who smashed most of the windows in supporters' buses on the way out of the town.

The following year Linfield travelled to Sligo for a Tyler Cup win at the Showgrounds and my reports for Sunday newspapers listed a litany of incidents and Garda baton charges at supporters.

I also witnessed vicious violence at a Cork Hibs v Linfield game in Dublin in 1971, plus trouble at other venues in the Irish capital and at Blues' games in Sligo, Athlone, Ballybofey and Drogheda.

Sanctions

It was also reported in 2005 when Linfield faced Shelbourne in a cup final at Tolka Park that fans of Shamrock Rovers showed up and tried to attack the Belfast supporters.

As regards Linfield and their sanctions from Uefa, the club are, according to manager David Healy, at their wits' end about what to do about the sectarianism.

I also don't know how they can tackle it but it's essential, at the very least, that the problem is acknowledged for what it is and where it's coming from.

During a 20-minute discussion on the Beeb's Talkback programme last week, the words 'Blue Unity' were not even mentioned.

They are at the heart of all the problems and I've been condemning them for years.

The 'casuals' as they are sometimes described don't turn up in the same numbers for routine domestic games as they do for potential 'flashpoint' games against the likes of Glentoran — where sectarianism isn't on the agenda but hate is — and Cliftonville, who have also been plagued by the behaviour of a small number of their supporters.

The twisted 'appeal' of the casuals has also spread to other clubs in the local game.

Bangor have also been fined for their fans' sectarian chanting and even a tiny club like Dundela in east Belfast have had to chide a group of supporters for racist behaviour.

Maybe ordinary decent fans could take a leaf out of the book of Northern Ireland's supporters who tackled the sectarian scumbags in their midst by drowning out their vile garbage.

The day the music died: Showband survivors struggle with emotion at scene of attack 50 years on

Ivan Little, Sunday World, August 3rd, 2025

MIAMI SHOWBAND SURVIVORS STRUGGLE WITH EMOTIONS AT SCENE OF ATROCITY 50 YEARS ON PSNI CHIEF AMONG GUESTS AT SERVICE FOR UVF MASSACRE VICTIMS

It is 50 years since I wrote that first, horrific front-page story about the Miami Showband massacre, but returning to the scene for the first time three days ago was unexpectedly uplifting.

This was because the two survivors of the UVF atrocity spoke of forgiveness and reconciliation.

There were even prayers for the terrorists who shattered the musicians' lives and killed their friends, and themselves, at Buskhill, seven miles from Newry.

Saxophone player Des Lee, who was in a chair at the service because of back problems, was seated just above the ditch he was blown into in July 1975 by the loyalists' prematurely exploding bomb.

He was clearly struggling with his emotions as bass player Stephen Travers said the last 50 years had flashed past in 50 seconds.

Fresh in Mr Lee's mind, he said, was the “horrendous” sight of bodies and bodyparts scattered around the road as he emerged from the ditch to get a lift into Newry and report the attack.

“It's one hell of a drop, but something got me up here, onto the road,” he added.

It was chilling to think that, apart from the two survivors, I was probably the only other person at the service who had been early on the scene in July 1975.

My memories are of not only seeing the band's wrecked tour bus but also a boot which had been part of the group's stage costumes and a publicity photograph of the smiling musicians.

I also recall hearing how one of the UVF men tried to ingratiate himself with the showband by asking him how the dance in Banbridge had gone.

Evil

At the time, a police contact told me a severed arm bearing a tattoo with the words 'UVF Portadown' had been found nearby. It presumably belonged to UVF terrorist Harris Boyle, whom I had encountered during my days working in the town.

On Thursday, around 150 people gathered at that desolate spot where the music died half a century ago but where the spirit of hope cut through the darkness for some, though not Belfast punk legend Terri Hooley.

“I wasn't going to come to the service,” he told me, grimly. “I was at the 40th anniversary commemoration 10 years ago, and I felt an overbearing sense of evil about the place, so much so that I was ill after leaving for Drogheda, where I had a DJing gig.”

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said it was important for him to be at Buskhill: “'I've become very close to Stephen and Des. I have huge respect for them.”

Asked about the survivors' quest for answers, including confirmation if the attack was masterminded by undercover British Army officer Robert Nairac, Mr Boutcher said the atrocity had been looked at by the Kenova inquiry team he had been part of. But he continued: “That's not something that I can comment about today.”

The commemoration was supported by Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was one of the 29 people killed by the Omagh bomb, and Eugene Reavey, who believes his three brothers were killed by the loyalist Glenanne gang, which is also believed to have been behind the showband massacre.

The two loyalists blown asunder by the bomb they were trying to plant on the tour bus were Wesley Somerville and Boyle, who had a band parade in his 'honour' in Portadown last night.

Des Lee said he had no problem with the memorial, in line with his belief that everyone had a right to remember their dead.

Mr Lee and Mr Travers laid wreaths at a roadside monument to his murdered bandmates, singer Fran O'Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy.

Floral tributes were also left by tour manager Brian Maguire, who was travelling separately on the night, and drummer Ray Miller, who had decided to go home to Antrim instead of travelling to Dublin on the tour bus.

Father Brian D'Arcy, who recalled breaking news of the murders to the families, prayed for “peaceful rest” for everyone killed in the attack, including “those with wrong intentions who had to face the Lord too”.

Within hours of the murders, I was one of the reporters on the Belfast Telegraph tasked with trying to unravel what had happened, and it wasn't easy because it wasn't immediately apparent why three musicians and two terrorists should have been together.

But the facts slowly became clear, and the first edition of the paper appeared on the streets with a one-world headline on the front page reading “MASSACRED”, bylined with the names of myself, Deric Henderson and John McAnulty.

Speculation

The article said the Miami, one of Ireland's top showbands had been returning from a dance at Banbridge's Castle Ballroom when their minibus was flagged down by men in UDR uniforms.

Initially, the UVF denied any involvement in the attack, and bizarrely, a spokesman for the Army said it was possible the intention of the terrorists had been to destroy the Miami minibus and instruments “without actually harming the boys”.

I remember thinking he was probably the only person in Ireland who believed his words.

The blood of every music fan ran cold in the days after the atrocity as it became clear the UVF had been hoping to make it look as if the Miami Showband had been ferrying explosives for the IRA, an allegation made even more ridiculous by the fact that two of the musicians were Protestants.

There was speculation on Thursday that the commemoration service would be the last, but Des Lee said he hoped he would still be alive to take part in another one in 10 years.

Hundreds attend parade in memory of UVF Miami Showband killer

John Toner, Sunday Life, August 3rd, 2025

Loyalists last night held a huge band parade in memory of UVF Miami Showband murderer Harris Boyle.

Hundreds of people took part in the march on the Killicomaine Estate in Portadown before a new mural commemorating the terrorist was unveiled.

Billed as the Harris Boyle 50th Anniversary Memorial Parade, the controversial march comprised more than 400 people and 15 bands.

Among those taking part were the Moygashel Sons of Ulster Flute Band, which regularly commemorates the life of Boyle's fellow UVF Miami Showband killer Wesley Somerville.

The Harris Boyle Memorial Parade began at Levaghery Orange Hall shortly after 6pm and ended on the nearby Gilford Road.

Botched

Speaking to yesterday's Belfast Telegraph, First Minister Michelle O'Neill said she did not think the event should be banned, insisting everybody must have “the space to remember their dead”, and to do so in a “dignified and respectful” manner.

But DUP MP Sammy Wilson said: “I don't believe that we should be, in any way, trying to glorify the terrorist acts of the past.”

Thirty bands marched through Moygashel in April in honour of Somerville, who blew himself up alongside Boyle in July 1975.

Boyle and Somerville died in the botched attack while attempting to plant a bomb on the Miami Showband tour bus.

The rest of their UVF gang then opened fire, murdering singer Fran O'Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy.

Bass player Stephen Travers and singer Des Lee were badly injured but remarkably survived.

Mr Travers explained he had no issue with the parade, saying: “Everybody has a right to commemorate their dead as long as it's respectful to the victims and also that it's dignified. I have no problem.”

The chart-topping band were targeted as they travelled from a gig in Banbridge to Newry.

Their minibus was stopped late at night on a rural road by UVF men posing as British Army soldiers.

The musicians were ordered to line up at the side of a verge while attempts were made to hide a bomb on their bus.

The intention was for it to explode a short time later and for the Miami Showband to be falsely accused of transporting a bomb for the IRA. However, the device blew up prematurely as Somerville and Boyle were hiding it in the vehicle, killing both men instantly.

Hundreds turn out for anti-immigration protest outside Co Antrim hotel

Sunday Life, August 3rd, 2025

Around 200 people gathered outside the Chimney Corner Hotel in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim.

Many held banners and placards with slogans including 'Demographic replacement is genocide', 'Stop the invasion' and 'Illegal migration threatens our families and our nation'.

Among the protesters was addiction-recovery influencer Lynsey Brown and west Belfast activist Tony Mallon, who recently founded political group NI People's Party.

After being arrested in relation to arson attacks on 5G masts across west Belfast, he told a newspaper last month there is “absolutely no evidence” to connect him with the fires.

Posting on Facebook about yesterday's protest, Mallon said: “Happy to support pocket rocket Lynsey Brown speaking up at Chimney Corner, where the government thinks it's OK to place illegal immigrants in a hotel facing a nursery as our homeless are left living on the streets in tents.”

Stephen Baker, one of the event organisers, spoke to the crowd via a loud-hailer. His words were greeted with chants of “Get them out”.