Fear and Loathing in Fermanagh
Just after 6.00 pm on a dry April evening of last year, Victor Morrow left his home on the outskirts of Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh to walk the mile or so into town. Morrow worked as a machine operator at the Sir Richard Arkwright plastics factory 'in nearby Lisnaskea. He was working on the night shift and was walking, lunch box under his arm, into town to get a lift with one of his workmates. The Newtownbutler to Clones road along which he walked is a typical Fermanagh country road. On one side there is open wet land of scutch grass and rushes, whilst the other side is lined by a little wood. Morrow had gone less than three hundred yards from his home when he was shot dead, at a range of two or three yards, by a gunman who had been waiting for him, hidden in the trees at the side of the road. Morrow's killer had waited until he came alongside before hitting him with three bullets with such deadly accuracy that Morrow was probably dead before he hit the ground. The gunman then climbed over the ditch and onto the road. He stood over the body of Morrow who lay face down, his lunch box still firmly tucked under his arm, and fired another six bullets into the back of the prostrate man's head.
Newtownbutler RUC men, who were manning a checkpoint on the very edge of the town heard the shots and were on the scene of the killing within I \.2 minutes. Road blocks in all directions were immediately set up, but no one was apprehended. From the point where Morrow was shot to the border is a distance of less than two miles.
Morrow's skull was so horrifically shattered by the bullets that for a while the first RUC men on the scene thought that he had been knocked over by a car. The indentations made in the tarmacadam surface of the road by the bullets are still visible today.
Victor Morrow was but one of over 60 people who since 1971 have met with violent deaths in County Fermanagh. Like nearly all the others. Morrow was a Protestant. He had been a member of the B Specials and then of the UDR from its inception in 1971 until his retirement from the force in 1979. fie had also been a member of the Feugh Orange Lodge and the Black Perceptory, In a rural area where tradition die hard, Morrow had joined the UDR .", more for "the crack of being with the lads" than for any other reason. To the Provisional IRA. who claimed responsibility for his killing, "being with the lads" had made of Morrow a legitimate target. With the exception of some ten "mistakes", all those killed in the Fermanagh area have been members of the security forces and almost all of them local men, i.e. members of the UDR, the RUC, or the RUC Reserve.
Morrow's killing was typical of other Fermanagh assassinations in another sinister aspect. To be so well placed, Morrow's killer must have been extensively informed of his movements. It is the contention of many Fermanagh Protestants (and the facts time and again seem to prove the theory), that for such killings to be effected the gunman must have received information from the victim's neighbours. In the local terminology, the man's assassination "was set up by his Catholic neighbours". Suspicion between the Protestants and the Catholics of Fermanagh has probably never run deeper than it does today.
Fermanagh is a relatively underpopulated area of lakes, wet lands, forests and some very good farming land. The population is 51,000, which is 3.3 per cent of the total population of Northern Ireland. (By contrast the Belfast area accounts for 60.1 per cent of the total population of Northern Ireland.) At any other time Fermanagh would be a thriving tourist resort - the small amount of industry in the county and the wide variety of facilities it can offer, especially to the hunting, shooting and fishing brigade make it a natural area for tourism. The majority of Fermanagh people still have some connection with the land; many of them farm small holdings of 50-100 acres. The farming that is done on the hilly, undulating terrain, typical particularly in South Fermanagh, has to be mixed. With one or two obvious exceptions no one in this area would appear to be wealthy, but they are getting a living out of the land.
It is in the South East Fermanagh that many of the killings of the security forces have taken place. Although Fer managh is approximately 51 per cent Catholic and 49 per cent Protestant, the South East part of the county on the border is predominantly Catholic, with Protestants in a minority of approximately 25 per cent.
Going through the intertwining network of small country roads it is easy to see why this has become a favoured area for Provo operations. This idiosyncratic nature of the line followed by the border means that in certain places one can head due South, due East or due West and still cross the border within two miles. The fact that as recently as June of 1980 14 border roads were closed off by the security forces does not much alleviate the situation since the gunman can still effect an untroubled escape on foot.
A local UDR man pointed out how the hilly terrain lends itself to ambushing patrols. Many of the main roads through the area have a smaller road running parallel for a distance and often on higher ground. Thus the main road can be surveyed from the higher ground of the minor road and explosives placed in a culvert or below a bridge can be detonated with fatal accuracy. RUC constables Rose and Howe were killed in February of 1980 in just this way.
To tour this part of Fermanagh with the UDR is to understand how exposed the security forces are, since the majority of the UDR do not live within the protection of a city ghetto, but on isolated farms.
Thirty four year-old Ernest Johnston, an RUC reservist was such a farmer. One night last October he arrived back from his shift at the Lisnaskea barracks at around 11.00 pm. He lived in a neat little bungalow, set back twenty yards from the road and adjacent to the land that both he and his father farmed. He got out of his car at the bottom of his driveway, unlocked his gate and drove his car into the drive. He then got out of his car again to relock the gate. He drove up the short avenue to the side of his house. Just as he climbed out of his car for the third time he was hit by several rounds from three armalites. Johnston's 25 year old wife ran out from the kitchen to catch her husband in her arms. Johnston died on the way to the doctor in Lisnaskea.
Normally Johnston's father, who lived nearby, would have been standing guard with a shotgun in the immediate area of the house. On this occasion the father was not on guard. An oversight can literally be fatal.
Although the dissatisfaction and impatience of the Protestant community has never been higher, there has as yet been no Protestant retaliation. However that is unlikely to continue indefinitely. Our guide, a part-time UDR man and farmer, who has seen at first hand the violent deaths of some of his colleagues, sums up the feeling:
"Before the Troubles began here, there was plenty of cooperation between the two communities, but that's all changed now. Nobody feels safe anymore and you just cannot trust your Catholic neighbour because we know that they have set up some of the murders. . . I don't like to think about it, but in these extreme times, something desperate will have to be done. If the murders don't stop, I can see it coming to the point where the Protestants go round all the Catholic homes in the area and tell them to get to hell out of here and go down south to their Republic, if that is what they are so keen on."
The UDR seem certain about one aspect of the security situation - to improve it so radically that the Provos no longer threaten the community, there is but one measure that matters: Ulsterization of the security forces. Road blocks, VCPs (Vehicle Check Points) and air and ground patrols have all been increased considerably in Fermanagh in the last twelve months. But local Protestant feeling is that until the English command of the UDR is handed over to the Fermanagh Protestants themselves, no significant security advance can be made. Our guide again:
"The old B Specials were a self-disciplined fine body of men. It is all nonsense to say that they were a sectarian force. I know an old man who served over forty years in the Specials and in that time he only shot one man. . . The Specials knew the area, and knew everybody's movements and they were much quicker on the scene of an incident. .. The ordinary criminal, the bloke who robs a car or something, he can be dealt with by the present security measures. But these politically motivated bastards, the only way you'll deal with them is by stamping them out."
For this man at least, the enemy were not mindless thugs, but calculating republicans. Republicanism was the enemy because Protestants "hate it due to its association with the Catholic Church". In his frustration at the attempts of the security forces to deal with this old enemy, he complained of his English commanders:
"There wasn't an Englishman born yet, but he was a bloody eejit."
It may seem fatuous to suggest that the entire Protestant community in Fermanagh is under threat. Obviously members of the security forces are prime targets. But, in a county where the RUC/UDR recruitment rate has traditionally been very high, in effect the majority of Protestant males are either members of or related in some way to members of the security forces. Therefore the Protestant community is threatened. But at the same time, the fact that there is such a high involvement in security means that in the horrendous event of a Protestant backlash, the Protestant community would have access to an arms supply that could in no way be matched by the Catholic community. It is estimated that at the moment there are two or three guns in every Protestant Fermanagh home.
Much of Unionist politics in Fermanagh centres around the issue of discouraging just such a Protestant backlash. As the Provo campaign continues so hard-line Protestant attitudes in general and Paisley in particular gain ground from Official Unionism. Fermanagh has traditionally been a stronghold of Official Unionism - at the moment nine out of the ten Unionist seats on the Fermanagh District Council are held by Official Unionists. The tenth seat is held by DUP councillor Bert Johnston. But it seems inevitable that at the May Local Government elections, the DUP will win more seats. The current climate of Dublin Summit rumours, of Provo killings could hardly be more suitable for the encouragement of Protestant extremism.
DUP councillor Bert Johnston embodies this shift of Unionist support. For the first seven years of his political life, he had been an Official Unionist and it was only two years ago that he switched his allegiance to Paisley and the DUP.
"I no longer believe that Official Unionism knows where
It is going. It has lost the values of Carson. . . the fact that the Official Unionists are willing to collaborate with councillors from the Republic shows how far they have drifted from the fundamentals of Unionism."
Johnston was here referring to the fact that the local council had chosen to recognize the achievement of a local canoeist who had represented an All-Ireland team with distinction. Johnston felt that if the canoeist wanted to represent All-Ireland there was no reason for Fermanagh Council to present him a medal for doing so. Likewise he sees the fact that some Official Unionists were willing to condone Sunday sport as proof of their straying from the straight and narrow of true Unionism.
"We are now the only ethical Protestant party. We are in contact with Protestants grass roots. . . We are not looking for violence, but we are looking for the right to live in peace. We don't want to confront Westminster, but we are ready to tell them what we want. We have not got proper security here, and if things continue, it'll soon be the IRA and not the council who are letting the houses. I am referring to the fact that, in the last week, a young Protestant couple came to me to complain that they have been intimidated out of their home by an IRA gunman."
Johnston does not believe that the present course on which his leader. Dr. Paisley, seems set will inevitably mean a break up of the Union. His whole aim is to maintain the Union. He feels that the victory of Paisley in the European elections proves that Paisley is the true voice of Protestant Ulster. He feels that Paisley can get what he wants within the Union and what he wants basically is a return of Stormont or something similar.
"There is no way that we can have power sharing with republicans, who are subversives because they don't accept the existence of the state. . . There's nothing wrong with majority rule, Catholics have nothing to fear from Protestantism because Protestantism means liberty for everyone."
Like all shades of Unionist opinion, Johnston is totally impatient with what is regarded as the bumbling indifference and aloof ineptitude of the Northern Ireland Office. The state of the local economy is regarded as further evidence of this. Indeed in the next few months there will be redundancies at local factories such as Kent Plastics, URIC, STC, and even Enterprise Ulster. The current unemployment rate in Fermanagh is 17 per cent or 18 per cent. These figures are cited by all Unionists as proof of the uncaring attitude of the direct rule administration.
Lord Brookeborough:
"We have the ridiculous situation here in Fermanagh where 5,000 people in the Pig and Poultry industry have been made redundant. It cost the Government £25 million in redundancy payments to lay these people off, whereas it would only have cost them £5 million in subsidies to keep the industries going."
Brookeborough is a representative of the old Unionist elite. His father was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1943 to 1963 and obviously played a major role in the formation of the Stormont State. The present Lord Brookeborough lives on the 1100 acre family estate just outside Brookeborough. Nowadays he actually farms only 100 acres of it himself. Lord Brookeborough has himself been a chairperson of the Fermanagh County Council and today is a regular speaker on Northern Ireland in the House of Lords.
An ex-Royal Hussars Captain, Brookeborough has been most concerned about the security issue. Last September he came to Dublin to see Haughey about the security question.
"I told him what he had not heard from anyone before. I gave him the facts of the situation here and let him know what it was like in the border areas."
Brookeborough feels that whatever the constitutional impediments there may be to the implementation of extradition in the Republic, that at least the Haughey Govern ment should make the gesture of trying to put something on the statute book.
"A doomsday situation could be getting nearer all the time here and Haughey is just listening to the information that is supplied to him by his agent in Northern Ireland, John Hume."
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As a member of the Conservative Party and a regular attender of Westminster, Brookeborough is in regular contact with members of the Conservative government, including Mrs. Thatcher. He feels that there is no question of Ulster being "sold out" by the Conservatives and claims that this view is only raised by those who have most to gain - Paisley, since it arouses Protestant fears; Hume, since he can claim to be nearing the achievement of a long term goa1;and Haughey for much the same reasons.
Nonetheless, Brookeborough is worried about the fact that there was no Ulster representation at the Dublin meeting, since he acknowledges that Ulster must have figured in the talks at some stage. Brookeborough accepts that Direct Rule is here for some while yet, but he hopes that it can be "Ulsterized" and "humanized" to some extent.
On the issue of Official Unionism losing ground to the DUP, Brookeborough feels that the ground could be taken from under Paisley's feet by two simple measures. Firstly, Mrs. Thatcher should announce the details of the summit meeting in Dublin and burst the "sold down the river" bubble. Secondly, she has only to release the details of any action, at whatever level, that proves that the union is being maintained. Brookeborough has no doubt that this is indeed the case and from his own dealings with Mrs. Thatcher is confident that there is no sell out on her part.
That is a confidence not shared by everyone. Apart from Paisley and the DUP, several Official Unionists have expressed themselves as uneasy. Harry West, former N.I. Minister for Agriculture and former leader of the Official Unionist party, puts the feeling:
"There is no doubt in my mind that Margaret Thatcher made a mistake in not disclosing what she was doing in Dublin. Not only did she refuse to tell Paisley, but she also refused to tell the leader of the Opposition in the British House of Commons."
Where there is silence, reasons West, there will be conjecture, rumour and, inevitably, suspicion. He too does not see Thatcher as a liar, but feels that it is only to be expected that the voice of Paisley will command most respect in an extreme time like this.
"Paisley, with all his faults, is someone that the Ulster Protestant understands. I mean we're all in the Unionist family."
The Unionist family in Fermanagh is in many ways more united than it would first appear. There is a consensus of wariness, if not open distrust, of the Dublin Summit. There: is agreement on the inadequacy of the security arrangements and on the need to Ulsterize the security forces, at least to a certain extent. There is total distrust of Haughey. There is agreement that if Haughey really wants to prove what a friend he is to Ulster then he has only to implement extradition and return the killers to the North for trial. (Almost no one has been charged, let alone convicted in connection with any of the Fermanagh killings. Yet one UDR man assured Magill that he knew where in Monaghan town there lived the assassin of at least six of his colleagues.)
Unionist feeling is also united on the incompetence of the Direct Rule system of government. Nearly everyone complains that the English Civil Servants and politicians basically do not care because they are not responsible to anyone in Northern Ireland. Atkins in particular is looked on with great distaste. A story in circulation in Fermanagh today recounts how on a recent visit to the county, Atkins was confronted by a member of the UDR who tried to explain to him the danger of his own situation. The UDR man asked Atkins for advice as to movement about the county at night. To his question Atkins replied: "You will have to make up your own mind about that."
The traditional Unionist feels that that is not the way to lead the community, that Atkins should have been saying, yes, go out at night if you have to, because I will make sure that it is a safe enough place to live in. Atkins will give no such guarantee.
"If all these troubles were happening within 60 miles of London, then Atkins and the boys would have got their fingers out and done something positive about it. They can go home to England every weekend and not be affected by it all."
The words are those of an RUC man who has a scar across his forehead to prove just how affecting it all can be.
In the last nine months there has come into being in the county an apparently non-political Protestant movement called "The Committee for the Defence of British Democracy In Fermanagh". Recently the Committee put an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph in which they tried to point out that the Fermanagh situation was one of ordinary, hard working, country folk caught in the front line of battle by force of circumstances.
One of those responsible for the organization of the Committee is the Rev. Edwy Kille. He explains that he felt it important to stress that it is the duty of a Christian citizen to obey the state. As evidence of the practice of this theory, he points out how he takes a service every Sunday in his Northern Ireland parish during which he says prayers for the Queen. He then crosses the border and takes another service in his second parish during which he says prayers for the President of Ireland, as head of the State. Both Protestant and Catholic clergy have a lot to answer for, he feels, for the way in which they have encouraged hatred and condoned violence.
Over 2,000 people attended the first meeting of the Committee in Newtownbutler to express their desire for a return to peace and normality. Despite the support demonstrated at this meeting, it is hard to see just what vital function the Committee can play in the future. Along with others, they have in the past lobbied for better security. No doubt they will continue to watch the security situation closely, but in the meantime there is the danger that the Paisley machine might try to muscle in on the act. Paisley himself spoke at the Newtownbutler meeting, along with Jim Molyneaux and it seems that, ever since, both Unionist camps have been watching the other to see who is trying to win control of the Committee.
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The Committee's assessment of the ordinariness of the Fermanagh loyalist caught up in war almost by accident is obviously debatable. Pre-1968 Fermanagh was hardly ordinary. Despite being a county with a slight Catholic majority,
Fermanagh returned 17 Nationalist councillors as opposed to 36 Unionist councillors. In March 1969 Fermanagh County Council employed 338 Protestants and only 32 Catholics. Between 1945 and 1969 of the 1,589 new houses built in Fermanagh, 1,021 were awarded to Protestants and 568 houses were awarded to Catholics (Divided Ulster, Liam de Paor; and The Orange State, Michael Farrell).
The above facts are rejected outright by most Unionists. Harry West, for example, dismissed the findings of the Cammeron Commission as being "unreliable, the work of a rush job". There never had been any real grievance amongst the Catholic community. Civil Rights was just the invention of some nationalists, who were beginning to fear that their dream of a United Ireland was going to die in the increasing economic prosperity of the Northern Irish State. West continues:
"There was more to Civil Rights than met the eye. It is a well known fact that several IRA gunmen attended the first rallies. . . Soon the movement became manipulated by the IRA. The grievances of the Catholic community were nearly all imaginary. There was legislation on the statute book, legislation that was part of the Government of Ireland Act, which protected the rights of the minority . Yet that legislation was never used. . . If the whole troubles had been handled more firmly, then the thing could have been nipped in the bud. After all there had been IRA gunmen in this country for a long time and we had always known how to deal with them. . . But two terrible mistakes were made. First Stormont was prorogued, and Willie Whitelaw has admitted to me many times since that this was the biggest mistake he ever made. . . and the second mistake was to disband the B Specials."
At the funeral of Victor Morrow, the Rev. Neville O'Neill said:
"We are left naked and defenceless against the things we cannot battle against ourselves."
The Protestant community is in no way naked or defenceless and if they so chose the Protestants know only too well how to battle against their enemies. Fortunately they have so far refrained from going into any form of battle. Patience is wearing thin and tension is in the air. An Army captain on foot patrol in the area summed up the delicate balance in the community:
"Despite everything, we still see ourselves here to defend the Catholics."
In the meantime, Fermanagh can, despite all the bland assurances about all the ordinary decent folk who want to live in peace and quiet, seem to be a community of two peoples going their separate ways. In the small market town of Lisnaskea, one of the pubs on the main street is owned by Frank Maguire, Independent MP and another one is owned by Jack Leahy, an Official Unionist Councillor. The two pubs are on the same side of the street less than twenty yards from each other. We asked a farmer in the street where they were and he replied:
"Frank Maguire's, is it? Ah sure it's just over there, beyond the pump, on the right there."
"Thank you, could you tell me where the Wyvern Inn (Jack Leahy's pub) is?"
"The what? Oh ay, the Wyvern Inn, ay, mm . . . Sorry you had better ask somebody else where it is. I couldn't tell you where that place is at all." .
"They try to explain Ian Paisley, but they don't understand. Ian Paisley is the incarnation of every Protestant 'Ulsterman here at this meeting tonight. I am only saying what you want me to say, what you want to hear."
Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Friday 13th of February, nearly 3,000 people turned up to support the Rev. Paisley and to sign his Ulster Declaration. In a packed Omagh Orange Hall, with many supporters listening outside, the mood was one of defiance.'Blood was up, scripture of a violent Old Testament nature was read, Rock of Ages was sung with gusto and the Ulster Declaration was declared. Plastic orange buckets were sent around to raise funds to fight this great campaign. The buckets returned with over £2,000.
Peter Robinson, MP for East Belfast, came to microphone. He got straight to the point:
"In every generation there have been those who refuse to face the reality of their plight. . . Do you really think that we Ulster Protestants have nothing to worry about?"
Robinson then clearly and logically outlined the events that "should alert Ulster to the conspiracy aimed at robbing us of our heritage." The Dublin Summit was to be regarded with the gravest suspicion because - (1) Thatcher went to Dublin, accompanied by the most high powered delegation of Cabinet ministers ever to visit Dublin. (2) Haughey described the Summit as "historic". (3) the joint communique, issued by the two Prime Ministers, spoke of the totality of relationships between the two governments. (4) Brian Lenihan had said in a Radio Ulster interview a few days later that "as far as we are concerned, everything is on the table". (5) at a meeting in Westminster between Rev. Paisley, Peter Robinson and Mrs. Thatcher, the British Prime Minister had refused to explain what was meant by the term "totality of relationships within these islands." She had also refused to contradict the statements of Haughey or of Lenihan. (6) All attempts to have the meeting discussed in the House of Commons were refused, and neither would the Prime Minister answer questions on the meeting at Prime Minister's question time. (7) Atkins has consistently refused to "come clean" on the issue. (8) the government newspaper in the Republic - The Irish Press - ran a front page story entitled "An Anglo-Irish Confederation. "
"And still Atkins, and the Official Unionists, and Haughey all tell us that we have nothing to worry about."
Protestants have had no choice but to take action.
"Last Thursday night, on the Antrim hills a flame was lit that shall spread across this province and show to the world that Ulster Loyalists are not prepared to allow themselves to be conned out of their heritage. . . In the House of Commons they call us rebels and glowingly praise Mr. Haughey. . . well, Charlie Haughey's ancestors were running around in pig skins and living in caves, while our ancestors were trying to cut a civilization out of the bogs and meadows of this country."
Robinson's speech is received with ecstatic enthusiasm. But when the Rev. Ian moves to the microphone, both arms raised in triumph, the hall breaks into a wild uproar of approval. The Rev. Ian takes up the same theme, but unlike Robinson he improvises on his previously issued text. The Rev. Paisley is very comfortable with this theme.
"A Prime Minister who refuses to answer at the Despatch Box in the House of Commons is a Prime Minister with something to hide. The very fact that she sat down with Haughey to discuss Northern Ireland's future at all is enough to indict her and rob all her subsequent assurances of any credibility."
The crowd responds throughout with ejaculations and shouts that are more typical of a gospel meeting. Paisley warms to the response of his audience. When someone shouts "Ulster for the Protestants", Paisley responds with an anecdote.
"During the Atkins initiative talks. John Hume, in a moment of frustration, turned to me and said, "Paisley, you're just an Ulster Protestant." I replied to Mr. Hume, "I am glad that at last you have got the message, I am indeed an Ulster Protestant".
The Rev. Ian then moved into the final act of his impressive performance, arms flailing, sweat trickling down the side of his face and that mighty voice booming louder and even louder.
"We shall defend what is ours. We be! determined men, come to do a task and with God's almighty Grace we will do it . . . I say to Charles Haughey, that son of an IRA gunman from Swatragh, that guardian of the IRA whose murderers have darkened 60 Fermanagh homes with death, Charlie Haughey, the Godfather of our intended destruction, the green aggressor, I say to you Charlie Haughey; that you will never get your thieving, murderous hands on Ulster because we're determined to fertilize the ground of Ulster with Protestant blood before we enter your priest-ridden banana republic. . . The 500 men on the hills of Antrim have woken up the British Government...We have vowed to bring this land back to sanity and we will carry this battle to every Ulster town and village and to every English city. There are 100,000, no 500,000 men, ready to march. . . and on March 28 we will carry this fight to the doors of Humpty Dumpty himself (Atkins), and Humpty Dumpty will have a great fall, and all the Haughey horses and all the Thatcher men won't be able to put: Humpty together again. . . . . No surrender!"