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(Belfast Born, Bred And Buttered By Joe Graham)

Chapter Four

The Duffin Brother Murders

A story I grew up with was that of the terrible murders of the Duffin Brothers at the home in 64 Clonard Gardens. The four members of the R.I.C Murder Squad involved in this killings were Sergt Clarke, Sergt Hicks, Const. Golding and Caldwell. It was midnight, the Duffin family were all in bed except two of the sons, Patrick and Daniel, when the front door was banged violently. Daniel opened the door as Patrick joined him in the hallway, awakened by the noise, John, another son heard a loud voice say, “Put up your hands”, at the same moment six or seven muffled shots rang out. John ran to the landing and saw his two brothers lying on the floor of the hallway and witnessed four trench coated men run from the hallway, one rather casually. It was later learned that a gun fitted with a silencer had been used. The Duffin family were a very respected local family, Patrick was a teacher at nearby St. Paul’s School, Daniel had been employed as a clerk. The other brother, John, became the first Headmaster at St. Kevin’s School when it opened in 1933.

These murders occurred at midnight, Saturday, 23rd April 1921, and I would ponder a while on this case, if only to clear up a couple of misconceptions that people may have on this and indeed a vital error that was made in that Collins Intelligence report of 1924, where it was stated that it was thought “the Duffin brother’s were murdered in retaliation for the earlier shooting of District Inspector Ferris” from Springfield Road Barracks. In fact, Ferris visited the home of the shooting later, as we will see later, and was not shot until two weeks after the murders. Some historians looking for a ‘justification’ for the murder of these two innocent men in their own home by the forces of law and order could, and have, cited the fact that earlier that night twelve Black and Tans members were attacked by the I.R.A at the corner of Insert Pic No. 15 Fountain Lane and Donegall Place, these “auxiliaries”, as they are often called, scattered in all directions, the I.R.A men vanished into the crowd , two of the Tans, John Bates and Ernest Boland, were fatally wounded. An R.I.C Detective who was passing at the time thinking he was the target of the attack, drew his revolver and fired off shots indiscriminately into the crowd, two innocent people were later admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds, 33 year old Robert Kennedy was shot in the head, Ruth Gelston was shot in the chin, so how anyone could put forward this as a reason why the Duffin brothers were murdered I will never understand.

After the curfew lifted on the morning of the Duffin murders, about 5 am, on learning of the murders people ventured out of their homes, and soon a huge crowd had gathered around the Duffin house. John had his two brothers laid side by side on the kitchen(living room in those days) floor, before he awoke his father and two other younger brothers who had heard nothing and brought them downstairs. Daniel Duffin had been a member of the local I.R.A company and for this reason a local republican stalwart, James McKee, was in the house a few hours later when District Inspector Ferris arrived with a squad of R.I.C men to remove the bodies. John Duffin , knew by James McKee’s staunch what would happen if the R.I.C attempted to remove the bodies, so he told Ferris, ‘there would probably be more dead bodies on the floor if you or your men touched those already there’ .

Ferris withdrew immediately, taking with him a mongrel terrier type dog that had been in the house all night and was cowering behind a piece of furniture.. And this dog, as anyone on the Springfield knew only too well, belonged to Sergeant Christie Clarke who lived just the other side of the Springfield Road at Forthriver Gardens. Clarke was stationed at Springfield Road Barracks, he and the dog were inseparable, where he went the dog went... so Clarke had been in the house earlier !.

As for D.I. Ferris he was another Catholic Policeman who appeared to ‘run with the fox and hunt with the hounds’, after attending ‘an inquiry’ into the murders, two weeks later, 7th May, which was held at Victoria Barracks, left and rushed to St Paul’s Chapel Parochial House to inform Archdeacon Convery of the developments. On leaving the priests house, as he passed the railings at Cavendish Square, three men stepped forward and fired one shot each at him, all three shots hit their target and he was carried back into the priest’s house. Dr. McSparran, who was nearby heard the shots and rushed to attend to him, he had been shot in the neck, stomach and hip, but he survived, As for the dog.. it was taken to Springfield Road Barracks and there it was shot. One writer wrote, “by an Orange R.I.C man”, again perpetuating the falsehood that no Catholic R.I.C men were involved in the R.I.C Murder squad and their cover up. For 70 years the fact that Clarke was a Catholic was kept clouded.. and I know why.. and perhaps nothing would be gained to disclose the reason now. So I will pursue that point no further, but Christie Clarke, Catholic or no.. cannot be written out of the history of poor tortured Catholic Belfast, for to do so would be to offer no reason as to his own killing and put those who assassinated him in the same category as himself and such like brutal sectarian murderers. Mark Twain had this to say on the subject of killing...

“All creatures kill - there seems to be no exception, but of the whole list man is the only one that kills for fun, he is the only one that kills in malice, the only one that kills for revenge”

One need not wonder what category Bishop MacRory placed the R.I.C, at one point he publicly stated that he felt it his duty to point out that there was “ a universal conviction among his people that these murders were the work of some of the Crown Forces”. As for myself, as to why I write such as I do.. of deeds of the past.? I feel these topics must be discussed and not brushed under the carpet .. I would quote.. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

The shock at the obscenity and cowardliness of the Duffin brothers murders brought a continual stream of mourners to their home at Clonard Gardens. The infamous R.I.C stayed at a respectable distance only too aware of the anger toward them and the damning evidence of Clarke’s dog being left behind at the scene of the double murder.

Fr. Noel Convery celebrated the funeral mass at 9am, Wednesday, 27th April for Patrick and Daniel Duffin, thousands of mourners lined the route as the cortege made its way down the Falls Road , Divis Street and Antrim Road on its way to the village of Glenravel, Co. Antrim for burial. Bishop MacRory and thirty priests led the cortege, followed by members of Na Fianna Eireann, Cumann Na mBan and Volunteers of the Irish Republican Army.

At the graveside Bishop MacRory, turned to the men’s father and said, “You should be a proud man to have reared such splendid specimen of Irish manhood.”

The Shooting Of Sergeant Christie Clarke R.IC

As for Sergt. Christie Clarke, he took to wearing a bullet proof vest which he seemed to think made him invincible for he was reportedly heard to joke many times, as he clapped his bullet proof clad chest, “ they will never get me “, but they did and they didn’t shoot him in the chest.

It was obvious from how Clarke was shot that the gunman who shot him had thought deep as to how his first, and perhaps only, shot would kill this man who preyed on his own people, but I don not think I have delicate enough words to describe the bullets route.

It was 13th March 1922, almost a year after the Duffin murders that the I.R.A caught up on Clarke. He and another R.I.C man, Con. Caldwell, who was also a member of D.I. Nixon’s murder squad were seated on the back of a caged car outside the Beehive Bar on the Falls Road, the bar at the time had been commandeered as a temporary police/military barracks. They were on special duty overseeing the scaling down of the funeral preparations following the funeral that day of two R.I.C men, Constables Connor and Cullen who had been shot dead at the corner of Dunlewey Street. The gunman came within inches of Clarke sitting on the back of the tender, pointed his gun under the flat top of the vehicle and fired upwards, right under the make shift wooden seat Clarke was sitting on, the bullet passed up through the length of his body. The gunman disappeared into the crowd, we now know that he threw the gun over the wall into the grounds of the Dominican Convent where it lay rusting for many years, It was later retrieved and is still in existence. The R.I.C was at a total loss as to who fired the shot, and from where, it all happened so quickly, apparently they panicked and fired shots at no particular target, yet, a man, Daniel Rogan from 20 Lincoln Street was found wounded 800 yards away in Cavendish Street, such was the indiscriminate shooting of the R.I.C, Daniel. an innocent passer-by was rushed to the R.V.H but died later from his wound.

Christie Clarke was buried from St Paul’s Chapel, the same chapel as his victim’s the Duffin brothers, Nixon and most of the murder squad in full uniform acted as ‘Guard of Honour’ as his cortege left the Chapel, a handful of curious locals watched. His remains were interred in Milltown Cemetery. He lies just some five graves away from that of the noble patriot Sean O’Carroll, from Gibson Street, a Celtic cross marks his grave, Sean was a Gaelic scholar and O/C of “D” Company I.R.A in Belfast. He left Belfast to take a teaching job in Ardee, Co. Louth where he was taken from his lodgings by Black and Tans who told his landlady she could bring some tea down later to the Barracks for Sean. Some time later shots were heard and Sean’s body was found riddled with gun shot wounds.

The following street song indicates how well Christie Clarke’s reputation preceded him and this ballad recalls an event only months after the Duffin murders...

THE RAGLAN STREET AMBUSH. 1921

Oh, I’ll tell ye a tale of a row in the town

When a lorry went up and never came down

It was the neatest and sweetest row ever ye’d meet,

When the boys caught the specials down raglan Street.

They were cursin’ and swearin’ as always before,

And they swore they’d walk knee deep in Sinn Fein gore.

But ours were the bullets those boul boys did meet,

And they ran like Hells Blazes down Raglan Street.

Oh the boul Christie Clarke, he was there on that night

Shouting “Give me a Webley.. I’ll put them to flight”

But a martina bullet cut the bricks at his feet,

And he broke all records down Raglan Street.

And the boul “Dinky” Campbell, a broth of a man,

With a “Peter The Painter” clasped in his right hand

Walked round a corner and a peeler did meet,

And “BANG” went the “Painter” up Raglan Street.

Well, in lorries and lorries they down on us poured,

The big guns and wee guns, they rattled and roared.

But ours were the bullets that danced at their feet,

And we sure won the Battle Of Raglan Street.

Well, early next morning, when dawn it had come,

There was nothing to hear but the sound of a drum,

It wasn’t the Orangemen walking the street,

It was the “Company D “ walking Raglan Street.

The above ballad relates to a particular early morning raid by Specials and R.I.C on the 10th July 1921 in the Falls Road/Leeson Street area. After such raids they usually left behind dead Catholics but in this instance the famous Falls Road “D” Company I.R.A, anticipating such a raid devised a plan to ambush the would be murderers. As soon as the convoy of peelers got to a certain spot in the street the I.R.A opened fire from about six different positions and exploded a land mine wrecking one of the lorries, there was massive gunfire and the peelers fled the area foiled in their murderous intent. A Constable Thomas Conlon from Springfield Road Barracks was shot dead. The ambush and ultimate forcing of the peelers to flee was a great morale booster to a normally defenceless people. But only streets away the unionist gunmen, R.I.C and Specials combined shot dead twelve Catholic men before the day was out.. Catholic defenders shot four of the attackers.

Also on the 10th of July 1921 many Catholic homes were burned to the ground at Norfolk Street and David Street, off Cupar Street, families moved over to the other side of the Falls Road for safety. James Ledlie a Catholic from Norfolk street was shot dead by the specials while trying to flee the area. Two members of the R.I, C murder Squad Head Constable Pakenham and D.I. Deigan opened fire from a passing cage car on a mother and her thirteen year old daughter at 16 Derby Street, the mother was wounded and lived but the daughter, Mary McGowan.

Another song which raised the spirits of the besieged people was ....

The Belfast Brigade

Caigavon sent the Specials out to shoot the people down

He thought the IRA were dead in dear old Belfast town

But he got a rude awakening with the rifle and grenade

When he met the 3rd Battalion of the Belfast Brigade.

Chorus:

Glory, glory to old Ireland, glory, glory to this island

Glory to the memories of the men who fought and dies

"No surrender" is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade.

The soldiers came from Holywood equipped with English guns

They had men by the thousands, ammunition by the ton

But when they got to Belfast they were seriously dismayed

By the Fighting 3rd Battalion of the Belfast Brigade.

Chorus:

We have no ammunition or no armoured tanks to show

But we're ready to defend ourselves no matter where we go

We're out for our Republic and to hell with your free state

"No surrender " is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade.

Chorus:

Come all you gallant Irishmen and join the IRA

We'll strike a blow for freedom when there comes our certain day

You know our countries history and the sacrifice it made

Come join the 3rd Battalion of the Belfast Brigade.

Chorus: