While
reading an article
on The Blanket recently, I couldn't
help but draw similarities to the treatment the
Gallagher family received at the hands of the
Provisional movement, and that which befell my
own family. My mother met a similar fate to Granny
Josie when I was in jail charged in connection
with shooting a RUC man and a British soldier
in Newry. The prison transport provided by the
PDF was never available to her because I was charged
with an IPLO operation.
It
wasn't always like that. In the early part of
the struggle, the various republican factions,
regardless of their differences, often pooled
resources, as in the case of the Green Cross committees
at the time. The Provisional Movement's policy
of "undermining and absorbing" Republican
Socialist prisoners is a shameful act that deserves
exposing. In the Adams camp's push for power in
the 70's, anyone who didn't fit their agenda was
ruthlessly undermined and marginalised, a policy
that was used (very effectively), throughout recent
history. A case in point is that of my father
Davey Morley.
Davey has been almost airbrushed out of republican
history because the Adams camp didn't agree with
his leadership in jail, supposedly because of
his stance on discipline within the camp; but
the truth of the matter is that Adams tried, and
failed, to oust Davey by running Ivor Bell against
him in the election for camp O.C. This ploy failed,
as in a free vote prisoners voted for Davey as
the popular choice. It's the only time any of
the Adams camp has ever been defeated in an internal
election. Maybe this has had a bearing on why
such ballots are non-existent within the Provisional
movement nowadays.
Davey Morley was well respected within the republican
community. Before the start of the present "troubles",
Davey enlisted in the British Army where he was
a drill major, an accomplished sniper who won
cups and medals for his skill. This stood him
well in the early days before his capture on the
24th of Feb. 1974. His favourite weapon, a sniper
Lee Enfield bolt action, was put to good use more
than once. A competent explosives man, Davey preferred
the cortex method than electrical detonation.
He was very active from 1969, where he worked
with notable republicans like Martin Meehan, Joe
Rafters, 'Dutch' Doherty, and 'Cleaky' Clarke.
Davey was, in Meehan's words, "a top operator",
and top of the most wanted at the time, even after
arrest and capture holding prison staff hostage
in a failed escape attempt from Armagh jail in
March 74, before becoming a protégé
of Billy McKee, who seen fearless leadership skills
in Davey.
He fought gallantly with his men in the burning
of the camp on 15 Oct 74. Davey died an untimely
death on 6 June 1987, at only 46. Many have commented
that this could have been due to the use of the
CR gas on prisoners at the time. Local Sinn Féin
councillor Brendan Curran went to Davey's wake
and asked for a photo of him to do an article
in AP/RN, which was never carried. A life
long republican commitment ignored because it
didn't suit the Adams camp. Davey Morley was airbrushed
from republican history.
When Davey's co-accused Gerry 'Groucho' Marks
died (RIP) shortly after Davey, the death got
a half-page mention in AP/RN —rightly
so, he was another skilled and committed Volunteer—
it was almost like a slap in the face for the
family that Davey didn't get a mention.
The only mention he gets now is derogatory comments
from Gerry in some book or another. Strange that
it took Gusty Spence in his book to say, "Davey
was light years ahead of the leadership at the
time." Oddly they had a good working relationship,
with Gusty doing his part to try to get the Brits
to stop brutalising the men after the '74 burning.
But yet it seems that Gerry tries to castigate
Davey at every opportunity in his various books
about his time in Long Kesh.
Davey Morley was a true republican; so was his
son Eoin Morley. Eoin was murdered by British
agents masquerading as PIRA members in April 1990.
Eoin served the republican cause well, as an operator
for the PIRA and later the IPLO. When our family
approached the Provisional movement at the time
with our evidence that those who killed Eoin were
British agents, they didn't want to know. They
would rather let these agents continue on their
treacherous ways than confront the truth. Time
has now proved us right, but maybe to the Provisional
movement, Eoin, like Davey before him, didn't
fit the bill, and was considered "the wrong
kind of republican".
