A CHILD OF THE TROUBLES: PRISON RIOTS PARAMILITARIES MURDER PEACE

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Much has been written about collusion. It is undoubtedly true that it took place, and did so from the chaotic early days of the conflict. How successfully loyalists parlayed that collusion into effective action against the IRA is debatable. Examination of mobile phones, DNA evidence from the balaclavas and body-mapping techniques led detectives to the gang. In 1982, aged 17, he was convicted and detained at the Secretary of State’s pleasure for the sectarian murder of a Catholic in north Belfast

Was I having a nightmare? “Alex Calderwood, you’ve been sentenced to the Secretary of State’s pleasure,” the judge said. The mallet fell and made a sound that life was about to change. “Take him down,” echoed around the courtroom. Another judge sat down. “Alex Calderwood, you’ve been sentenced to seven years,” he said. The mallet went down again. The ratio of republican to nationalist victims of UDA violence in 1979 was unusually high, and the number of victims significantly lower than previous years, but otherwise 1979 was very much business as usual for the UDA in Belfast. Defending former soldier and father-of-five Willis, Nigel Mitchell asked for credit for his client’s early guilty plea, adding: “The robbery started life as a joke but unfortunately it became a reality.”A taxi driver took him into the Shankill and give him to the likes of Oso and said 'Do what you want with him'. Oso was sent to the Maze and he served 16-years for that," recalled Ms Graham. Mr McCormac later tells how his brother Hugh, a sergeant in the RUC training centre, was shot dead by the IRA as he attended Mass at St Gabriel's Monastery near Enniskillen with his wife and three children. Hugh was hit and then another gunman came up and fired more rounds into his body as he was lying on the ground. Described as a hospitality pioneer who created artsy, unusual hotels that catered for image-conscious "scenesters", Calderwood opened his latest in Shoreditch six weeks ago, saying it was "derived and driven by east London". Loyalist hitman Frankie Curry was responsible for the murder. Curry was later killed in 1999 during a loyalist feud.

Calderwood grew up in a suburb of Seattle and started his career as the manager of a clothing store in the city called International News. Using his eclectic taste for vintage objects, he bought material from a Boeing surplus store to create a unique atmosphere, Amit Shah, who hired Calderwood, told the Seattle Times. The retired RUC officer says when he joined the service he was originally stationed at Rosemount PSNI station in Derry.Calderwood’s pal, Billy Grogan, who was described in court as a “ruthless gangster” was caged for 15 years for being the brains behind the terrifying robbery on a Bournemouth snooker club. McClinton was jailed for two murders; a politically uninvolved Catholic civilian, and a Protestant bus driver. Neither killing had any effect on “the IRA rebellion.” Why would they? In Calderwood’s defence, Robert Gray said : “There is real evidence that he only became involved at the very last moment. He got involved as a result of manipulation by others.” official papers from 1971 show the Heath cabinet agreed a potential intelligence relationship with ‘Protestant vigilantes’–‘civil defence’ groups could be ‘tolerated’– dealings would be ‘unofficial & local.’ Whilst White is typically exaggerating when he says C Company were responsible for “90%” of sectarian murder from 1972 – 1976, it is true that the west Belfast UDA had within its ranks pitiless murderers and sadists with the drive and capacity to murder any nationalist civilians that they could get access to, often after barbaric abduction and torture. From teenage boys, to middle aged mothers, the 1970s Belfast UDA murdered on scale, and at pace. They killed far more people than the Adair era UDA did.