Authors: Raymond Murray
Tags: #Europe, #Ireland, #General, #History, #Political Science, #Human Rights, #Political Freedom & Security, #british intelligence, #Political prisoners, #Civil Rights, #Politics and government, #collusion, #IRA, #State Violence, #Great Britain, #paramilitaries, #Northern Ireland, #British Security forces, #loyalist, #Political persecution, #1969-1994
State Violence (6 page)
While putting an emphasis on the salvation of the individual, Catholicism also puts a great emphasis on the âkingdom', the âchurch', the âcommunity', the âpeople of God'. This is carried on from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the image of resurrection is used to express the collective hope of the people of Israel. God triumphs over death for the benefit of his people. Following this tradition, all the communal aspects of Salvation in Jesus Christ interest the Church. The baptised as a community have a vital union with Christ. St Paul says, âWe are all baptised in one Spirit to form one Body'. The baptised constituting the Church are, therefore, âone Body of Christ' (1 Cor. 12:13). This unity is symbolised in the term âcommunion of saints'. The church is the unity of the living on this earth with the faithful departed, those who sleep, who rest in peace. The Eucharistic bread is the bond of living cohesion. Therefore at Holy Mass there is a special commemoration of the living and the dead: both are united spiritually in Christ as the âcommunion of saints'. Hence the use of the beautiful phrase for the Eucharist â Holy Communion, and the emphasis in Catholicism on praying for the purgation of the dead, praying with the dead, revering their memory at Easter, the feast of the resurrection of Christ, and in November. The dead are laid to rest in graveyards, in ground that is specially consecrated, like a congregation symbolically âsleeping' around the building of the church; united to the people praying in the church who greet their memory as they pass their graves.
With this understanding one can see then that the executed belong to a community church in life and in death. Tom Williams and Captain Robert Nairac are brothers in the family of the faithful. That Williams is buried in isolation in a prison yard and Nairac in unconsecrated ground is a total contradiction of the community dimension of the faith they professed and a source of deep hurt to their surviving relations and to the people from which they came. They should be symbolically united with their brothers and sisters in a community graveyard where the âchurch' sleeps in a great dormitory awaiting the arousal call of the Lord. The biblical idea of Christ as the bridegroom, who loves his Church as his bride and who will bring her resplendent to himself, expresses beautifully the idea of the corporate nature of the Church, a single entity. These men should be buried among their own people, their âbones resting with their fathers'.
Corruption in a tomb is a transitory state only, from which man will re-arise as one awakes from a sleep into which one has slipped. Ephesians says, âAwake, sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you' (5:14). This fundamental conviction of resurrection of the body, the human person, whole and entire, dominates the whole Christian existence. It superimposes itself upon our thoughts in these cases of Tom Williams and Robert Nairac. We are mindful that all people are sinners. Tom Williams, aged 19 years, made a holy preparation for death in the company of Fr Patrick McAlister and he went to death holding his crucifix and praying. Cardinal Hume, former Abbot of Ampleforth where Robert Nairac was a student, made an appeal for the safe return of Captain Nairac when he disappeared. At least his body can be returned to ârest in safety'. The religion of these two victims stretches beyond the grave. It would be fitting to respect the community nature of their religion, Catholicism, and the dignity of their bodies as individuals created by God and brought to a new creation by Jesus. Both men, like all Christians, lived in hope that their bodies would be transformed from present misery to a glorified state.
Abridged versions of this article appeared in
Doctrine and Life
and the
Irish News
.
Torture and Internment, August 1971
On 9 August 1971, 342 Catholic men were interned in Northern Ireland. Patrick McNally was among 23 of my
p
arishioners in Armagh who were arrested. He and Brian Turley of Armagh were two o
f
the twelve hooded men tortured in Ballykelly Barracks. I took this statement from Patrick on 18 March 1974:
At 4.30am on the morning of 9 August 1971 the soldiers came to my house. I said, âIs it internment?' One of them said, âYes'. They brought me to the grounds of Saint Luke's hospital in Armagh There was a lorry waiting there. I was the first into it, and shortly afterwards they brought in a few others, Corrigan and McGinley. Then we headed out to Gough Barracks, Armagh. Our photographs were taken there. Then three of us were taken in a helicopter, Dermot Kelly, Kerr of Navan Street, and myself.
We landed in Ballykinlar Barracks and were put into a hut. Only a few of us at the start, about a dozen from all over. I was taken out and had a medical examination, very brief, just strip and on me again. He was a youngish doctor, pleasant enough. Then taken to a different hut. It was full. We were left alone for a long time. Then the army came in a few hours afterwards and started making us do the âexercises', continued until that night, thumping you if you were not doing them right. All this time they were taking people out and questioning them; some would come back and some wouldn't. But I never was questioned the whole time I was there. Then processing us and moving us to different huts. On the 9th of August we were allowed an hour's sleep, but I couldn't sleep. I was only wearing a tee-shirt and trousers. I was freezing. On the tenth day of August we had the exercises all day again but the number of men was getting less all the time until there were only four of us in this particular hut, Brian Turley, Gerry McKerr, Seán McKenna and myself.
Gerry McKerr asked for a mattress for each of us and we were given this and a blanket. But they kept making us carry this mattress in turn and jump over the other three lying down. In between times you had to run outside between the two huts, ten times, getting faster all the time. At the end of this you were made go to the toilet which was a hole in the ground. You had to go through lines of soldiers and police standing round, watching this and laughing. They made swipes at you, odd thumps of the baton on the arm. Then when we came in again more âexercises'. All were told to go in and sleep, but each time we dozed over they would waken us up again and make us run round again. That went on all night. Before we went into bed each time we had to say together, âGood night, Sir' and âGood night, Sergeant'. Once on the tenth I asked to go to the toilet but then I didn't go because there was no paper provided and they stood there watching you all the time.
On the following morning, 11 August, just about daylight, three or four soldiers and about three police to each man came bursting into our hut, and they had the hood and handcuffs. I was held by a soldier and I think it was the policeman who put on the hood. I knew I was in for some sort of treatment. All sorts of things were going through my mind. Then I was bundled into a vehicle, thrown into the back, kicked and trailed. Then into a helicopter, grabbing your hair under the hood when they walked you along. Not a word was spoken the whole time, but I would say, about an hour, or between half an hour and an hour in the helicopter. Then out of the helicopter again into another vehicle, all the time very roughly handled, odd kick, punched and trailed. Getting into the vehicle you were banged against it and then you scrambled in on your own. Brought in the vehicle for a short distance.
Then we had a medical examination, stripped naked, still with the hood on, a short examination. No words spoken. Then into the boiler suit, about three sizes too big for me, open down the middle. Then taken out and stood against the wall, inside a building somewhere. At this time, in the beginning, I think we were lined together because you could feel people standing beside you. After a while I began to move and became restless. That was the first contact I had with anybody; my arms were falling down; they would raise them up and bang them against the wall. You were never allowed to keep your head down, just a few minutes and then it was pulled back. The noise was there at the start but at the start it didn't annoy me much. I was expecting it to be turned off. Only after a few hours that I began to think more about it. In the beginning it didn't seem loud but after a while seemed the only thing that mattered, nothing seemed to matter only the noise. After a while your hands and arms were numb. I imagined I was on a round wall, kept thinking it was a massive big pillar, kept thinking there was a roundness on the wall. After, I don't know how long, I think I fainted, was lifted up again. They got my arms and wound them round.
From I went in till the time I was taken away for the Removal Order I thought it was a few days. I was against the wall all that time except for the short interrogations. At the time the first interrogation came it just seemed an endless time against the wall. I know I had collapsed a few times. If you made any movement, if your hand crumbled, they would bang your hand against the wall, give you the odd dig in the ribs to remember you to stand right. One time I did fall I was left there for a good while but I am not sure if this was after the Removal Order or before it.
Brought out for the first interrogation, I was lying on the ground. They trailed me along the ground by the collar of the overall. I know I was trailed off something, like a short stage, a few feet high or more, two of them trailing me, kicked and punched, seemed a long distance. All darkness. Brought into a room. I was sat on the floor. On the first occasion the hood wasn't removed, but after that at the other interrogations the hood was rolled up but only up to my nose.
The first interrogation was very short. A voice just said, âYou wanted to see me'. I never answered. The voice said again, âHave you anything to say?' I answered, âNo'. Same voice said, âTake him away'. I was brought back again, but more roughly this time and pushed up against the wall. And so on.
Interrogation again in similar fashion. Seemed a good number of hours to me between this and the other one. Sitting on the floor again. After about half a minute sat up on a chair. Something similar. Heard only one voice. I was being held in the chair and the voice was coming from the front of me. All darkness under the hood.
Back again against the wall. Seemed another long time. I fell another few times. Next taken away in a jeep. I felt other people in the jeep. I knew Brian Turley was in it. He was shouting for air; he couldn't breathe. I was lying on top of him and somebody was lying on top of me. At one stage I saw underneath the hood â I could see black trousers and black boots of police. We were handcuffed in the jeep. My skin was caught in the handcuffs. An English voice said, âLook at the bastard's hands'. I was thumped on the hand with a baton where the skin was caught. I had a scar there for a long time after it. Lot of kicks on the journey, lying in a heap on the floor, just kicking free-for-all. This was the most kickings I got.
Then into a helicopter and about half-an-hour in it. Then brought out. Taken on foot for a good distance. Held by the neck and arms. Run over tin and grass. Brought into a building, down steps, hood was taken off my head. There was somebody in front of me in a black uniform. That was the first time the hood was taken off me. The man in the black uniform was standing beside a table. He just held this paper up. I said, âI can't see'. Everything was just a haze. I could only see the white paper and that was that. He didn't say anything. I couldn't see anybody else. Hadn't time to see them, all so quick. The hood was put on again. The piece of paper was put into the pocket of the overalls. Then the same journey back again.
I was wondering the whole way back what was going to happen. I had hoped at this stage that I might be going to jail. When I got back and was put against the wall again then I was really bad. Then started thinking all types of thoughts. After a few more hours of that I was thinking I would never come out of it.
A few more interrogations, about twelve to fifteen hours in between. Something similar the whole time. After what seemed a few more days to me, I couldn't stand at all. Must have been collapsing and falling all the time. One time I felt somebody lifted my leg and a sharp needle was run along my foot. I was up against the wall again after that. By this time the noise, which was there all the time, was such that it is just impossible to explain; you couldn't have sensible thoughts. I had come out of the helicopter listening to see were we going to the same place and when I heard the noise it just knocked the heart out of you.
After one of the interrogations I was brought into this small room. No noise there. It was completely black. I took the hood off after a few minutes. The room seemed very small, about six feet by four feet. I was exhausted. I rolled the hood up, made a pillow. It was a concrete floor, freezing out. But I was totally exhausted and I slept. That was the first sleep I got. I had never been offered any sleep.
I got only half a cup of water, only once, and it seemed after days. My lips were all dried up. They tried to put bread in my mouth, couldn't take it, just choked me. That was the first and only water I got. They had given it to me sitting on the ground after I had fallen.
One time I took the hood off when I was standing against the wall. There was light in the place but I couldn't see well, just seemed to be a dim orange light from the roof. I saw two men both stripped to the waist.
One of them said in an English voice, âDo you want to see anybody?' I answered, âNo'. Immediately they put the hood on again. I got a few thumpings. They were wearing what seemed to be the bottom of a track suit or a gym suit. Looked to be blue trousers. As the hood was being put on again I could see the white gym shoes. I have the idea that one had tight blondish hair. They were very fit and strong looking. This incident happened after I had come back from getting the Detention Order. The soldiers in Ballykinlar had told us there was civil war and that people and children were being shot. All this was coming back to me.