All
the noise about due process that made up the Sinn
Fein wash in the wake of the Northern Bank robbery
went out the window as the marching throng converged
on the home of Christopher Notarantonio, one of
the men charged with the murder of Gerard Devlin.
Once outside, some made it their business to shout
'touts out' and hurl abuse at the women and children
within. There was no one else to howl at. Notarantonio
was twenty miles away up the M1 motorway, in jail.
Those
who have access to detail about matters such as
West Belfast touts have not been slow to make the
point that such slogans are appropriate outside
certain homes in Ballymurphy but none that belong
to people with Italian sounding surnames. Others
contented themselves with ridiculing the Sinn Fein
protestors who made up a large section of the crowd,
pointing out that none of them were eager to shout
anything outside the homes of Freddie Scappaticci
or Denis Donaldson. Nor would they have any business
shouting slogans outside abodes that formerly housed
a FRU agent and a M15 agent respectively. What has
it to do with their families? Sinn Fein consistently
don't let consistency stand in the way of a little
bullying and intimidation.
On
the night of the rally a car toured the estate.
It was hard to make out what they shouting through
whatever voice amplifier they had with them. It
could as easily have been 'Juden raus.' Sinn Fein
members had for a week been doing the round robin
calls trying to bring as many of their own people
from outside Ballymurphy in for the event. Just
before it started I had passed the lorry that was
to serve as a stage from which speakers would address
the crowd. Some of those standing on it were IRA
members known to me. One in particular was the source
of a concern raised a number of months ago by friends
of Gerard Devlin, who felt his life could be in
danger as a result of IRA hassle. I put them in
touch with people who might be of assistance and
advised them that the best means to protect Gerard
was to go public and simultaneously push the issue
with the Sinn Fein leadership. On the rally night
it seemed strange that people who had habitually
menaced Gerard Devlin should now be organising events
in his memory. One person who attended it told me,
'if Dev was alive he wouldn't have been at the rally
himself. For years he took a lot of stick from some
of those parading around the street.'
Some
people left early. They sensed that Sinn Fein's
agenda was not that of an aunt of the murdered man,
Bernadette O'Rawe, who pleaded for an end to the
violence that has plagued Ballymurphy since last
month's murder and asked that people be allowed
to get on with their lives.
The
family circle of Gerard Devlin has every right to
be angry, bitter, resentful, thirsting for vengeance.
Bernadette O'Rawe, the spokesperson for the relatives
of Gerard Devlin, and who spoke at the rally, sounds
anything but. It seems were it not for her voice
little sensible would be uttered in relation to
the events surrounding the murder of her nephew
and the subsequent mayhem. The PSNI search of Gerard
Devlin's family home had earlier been described
matter of factly by Bernadette O'Rawe, whereas the
contribution of Sinn Fein MLA Michael Ferguson seemed
calculated to be inflammatory. His party only want
raids on the homes of those they oppose and not
those they temporarily align with. The whole tenor
of Bernadette O'Rawe's discourse was in sharp contrast
to the reported ranting of a local Sinn Fein election
worker who, in the words of people there, was intent
on winding up the crowd.
If
this is true he may have succeeded. Days later the
home that was marched on - the family made a video
recording of the march past - was torched. The arsonists
seemingly determined to murder everyone inside,
including an eight-year-old girl. Was the moral
compass of Ian Huntley, the murderer of Soham children
Holly and Jessica any worse than that which guided
the burners? Again, Bernadette O'Rawe was to the
fore in outspokenly condemning the attack. She termed
it 'despicable' and not carried out in her family's
name. Another relative of Gerard Devlin with whom
I spoke the day after the burning was furious at
the risk to human life. It seems clear that the
wider Devlin family circle, despite its grief, is
vehemently opposed to the ongoing campaign against
the Notarantonios.
But
others do endorse such activity. Victor Notarantonio
is determined that his mother meets Gerry Adams.
The Sinn Fein boss, her local MP, has ignored her
numerous pleas for a meeting. Victor is angry that
Adams had the time to meet with Raymond McCord but
not his mother. 'I think Raymond McCord has every
right to justice. But at the end of the day Gerry
Adams is our MP and has duty to listen to his own
constituents first.' The purpose of the meeting
is to allow 78 year old Edith Notarantonio to provide
Adams with the names of those who have been involved
in the burning of her family's homes and property
in Ballymurphy. Witnesses to some of the burnings
are prepared to disclose to the Sinn Fein president
the identities of those IRA members directly responsible
for firebomb attacks on at least three premises.
They are also willing to furbish him with the names
of IRA members they claim daubed the walls of Ballymurphy
with slogans accusing the family of being touts
and MI5 agents. Victor Notarantonio states, 'we
would like Mr Adams to pass these onto the ombudsman.
Or was such a course of action in the McCartney
killing just a gimmick to get Sinn Fein off the
hook?'
At
first I was one of the sceptics. It was hard for
me to accept that the IRA would burn nationalist
homes. Each time it was put to me my response was
that the IRA's accusers were prepared to show the
dots but were unable to join them. There seemed
to be no verifiable IRA link between cause and effect.
Ultimately, however, I came to be snowed under by
the sheer volume of opinion. Former republican prisoners,
no friends of the Notarantonios, some of whom still
rally behind Sinn Fein, are now expressing anger
and stating openly that the IRA has been behind
some of the burnings. They are persuasive and hard
not to take seriously. 'Just watch who moves into
the houses if they get the Notars out', I was advised.
Twenty-five
years ago we were on blanket protest in the H-Blocks.
Bobby Sands was on the twelfth day of his hunger
strike and Frank Hughes was within days of joining
him. In those drab cells I thought we were going
to come through it some day, re-emerge from the
jails and re-enter our own communities. When we
did we would provide the long-suffering residents
with something better than they ever had before.
Why bother being a republican otherwise? None could
have persuaded me that a young woman not even born
at the time of the hunger strikes, the future we
were fighting to guarantee the wellbeing of, would
be jumping out her bedroom window to escape being
burned to death as a result of a firebomb campaign
which republicans played some role in. Not what
the boys gave their last for.
How
many Ballymurphy residents were burned out of their
homes in 1969?
