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(Belfast Born, Bred And Buttered By Joe Graham)

Chapter Five

The Murder Of Sean Gaynor, Springfield Road

Another infamous “early morning call” was that on the home of 24 year old Sean Gaynor, a Cinema Projectionist at the Clonard Cinema and well known Gaelic Hurler. At 1.30 am, the door of his family home at 236 Springfield road was violently banged, Sean’s mother described the event, “..we were awakened by violent rapping at the door I came down the stairs in response and while on my way Sean spoke from his room and said he would go along and open the door. However, I proceeded, but had just reached the bottom of the stairs when the door was burst open and a number of men in uniforms and caps and wearing dark clothes, poured into the hall. I was jostled aside and pushed into the parlour, one of the intruders said it was no time for gentility, I attempted to follow them as they rushed up the stairs, but was held up with a rifle, as they rushed up the stairs they twice called out, “Are you there” ?, apparently Sean was ordered “Hands Up”, as I heard him reply, “ I have my hands up”, a second or so later I heard an agonised ,“Oh”, but did not hear any shots, but simultaneously stones were hurled through the parlour window from outside, and the crash from the breaking glass must have deadened the reports. I went up the stairs and called Sean, there was no response. I called him a second time and when there was no reply my worse fears were confirmed. On entering his bedroom I found him lying lifeless along the bed - an awful sight too agonising to describe. Apparently Sean had been first shot in the stomach and had either crawled or staggered into his room and fallen. While lying on the floor he was shot behind the ear, and the bullet, after exit, went through the bedroom floor and ceiling below, ricocheted and struck the kitchen window and entered the outside yard where it was searched for later by the men who had pushed their way in “.

The house was then ransacked while a unionist crowd on the other side of the Springfield Road ranted and jeered and threw stones at the windows. On hearing that Sean had been shot they jeered, “We will get the other two”, meaning Sean’s two brothers, Liam and Stephen.

On the day of Sean’s funeral the Tricolour was placed on his coffin and thousands of mourners turned out to pay their respects to the 6ft 2ins witty and much loved young man. The Belfast Brigade of the I.R.A marched behind the coffin under the leadership of Sean O’Neill and Lt. Gen, Joe McKelvey, who himself was later murdered by a Free State firing squad on Our Lady’s Day, 15^th August 1924. Coincidently , Joe McKelvey’s father, served as an R.I.C man at Springfield Road Barracks. On the day of Sean Gaynor’s funeral British Army armoured vehicles surrounded it as it prepared to move off from his home, a British Army officer pointed a machine gun at his father and two brothers ordering them to remove Ireland’s National Flag, the Tricolour, from the coffin. Liam Gaynor, Sean’s brother who had been a Volunteer since 1916 stepped forward and said, “ It will not be removed”, the officer backed off and the cortege made its way to Milltown Cemetery. Liam Gaynor was also a teacher at St John’s School, Colinward Street.

Sean Gaynor was murdered on Saturday, 26^th September 1920, the same day as Ned Trodden, the Falls Road Barber, and on the same day, at 54 Springfield Road, John McFadden, a Blacksmith, went to answer on his door. His family, in the front room, rushed to the window when they heard a voice shout “McFadden”, and then, “That has got you”, as three shots were fired. Two men wearing trench coats, one with a hat, the other a cap, walk down the Springfield Road towards Springfield Barracks, which was only 50 yards away. Family members rushed into the hallway only to find John lying dead on the floor, a bullet had pierced his heart. John was a strong trade Unionist and respected hard working man, his son Patrick later became a school teacher, as did the son of a neighbour across the road at 51 Springfield Road. This, at that time, was the home of a Catholic R.I.C man named Tansey, whose son, Eddie, taught me at St John’s Elementary School in Colinward street. The daughter of the family, Annie, a dressmaker, often told a story of the night the Duffin brothers were murdered, she spoke of how her father earlier that night called her to one side and said, “If any police officers call to the door for me tell them I am not here”, the police officers did call and Annie relayed her father’s message and they went on about their ’business’. There is no doubt in my mind what this gentle old lady(now deceased) was saying, that the murder squad in the Duffin killings had called for her father to accompany them on their murderous mission. It would appear that Mr Tansey. Sen,. was somehow privy to the goings on of the murder squad, or had fore-knowledge of something that he wished not to be involved in, yet somehow knew that he may be called upon to accompany the killers?, which could suggest that perhaps Catholic R.I.C men withstood pressure to join the murder squad, Mr Tansey left the force quite a short time after the incident, was Christie Clarke such a careers man that he would have done anything to further his promotional chances in the new “Northern Ireland“.? The R.I.C even had a section in the Men’s Confraternity at Clonard Monastery, of which Tansay the R.I.C man was Section Leader, and Clarke was a member.

Just as the slaying of John McFadden took place under the shadow of an R.I.C Barracks, so too did that of Ned trodden for at that time the Falls Road Library was commandeered as a Barracks which says volumes of how recklessly the death squad could act so close to a ‘police’ barracks. But before we go on I would like to relate, if only to keep on record, a sad and tragic discovery that was learned thirteen years after the slaying of young Sean Gaynor. His mother for all those years never passed Springfield Road Barracks without going in and making her protest heard at the police involvement in the murder of her son, even though the monster had changed its name from R.I.C to R.U.C (Royal Ulster Constabulary) One day, 13 years later, near Springfield Drive, Mrs Gaynor fell faint and was rushed home , she died. Later when her body was being prepared for burial a little hand-made canvas sack was found hanging on a cord around her neck. Sadness spread around the area when it was learned that the little sack contained a piece of her son’s skull that had been carried by that bullet that ripped through the bedroom floor and kitchen ceiling. She had found the piece of skull some time later and for thirteen years, unknown to anyone, she wore it close to her heart .

A particularly gruesome series of killings by the Death Squad were the brutal murders of Malachy Halfpenny, Alex McBride and Willie Kerr. All three murders took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, 12^th June 1921, these murders opened a new aspect to the killings for it appeared now the murder squad were torturing and mutilating the victims before and after death. Malachy Halfpenny, an ex-soldier who had served in the world war and had returned home suffering from gas inhalation problems was dragged from his home at 21 Herbert Street, Ardoyne, he was pistol whipped and beaten into an R.I.C vehicle which had approached his home with the engine switched off, free wheeling to make little sound down the steep Crumlin Road so as not to alert the neighbours. He was taken to nearby fields up the Crumlin Road where he was subjected to the most horrific torture and mutilation anyone could imagine, one would wonder was this where Lenny Murphy and his Shankill Butchers of the recent troubles acquired their inspiration. One would almost think a handbook on brutality was handed down

When Malachy Halfpenny’s body was found it had shots fired into it.. The soles of his feet were pierced by a bayonet.. His testicles were torn out by a bayonet. The ghoul who welded the bayonet was said to be Head Constable Giff, this we know from the Portobello Secret Files which go on to state, “ Giff always used the bayonet on his victims, as he considered this prolonged their agony.. And he didn’t believe in giving them an easy death”. One must remember, these were supposed to be policemen , not corner boys like Lenny Murphy and Co.

D.I. Nixon and his murder crew called at the home of 32 year old Alex McBride at 28 Cardigan Drive, Cliftonville. They hammered the door and when it was opened they took Alex McBride away telling his wife he’d be back shortly.. his mutilated body was found in the Crumlin Road fields. McBride was a hard working man who ran a public house off Lower North Street, no motive for his murder other than he was a Catholic. His wife actually named Nixon as the man who led the gang that abducted her husband from their home, no inquiry or explanation was offered by those involved in setting up the Orange state, “Northern Ireland”, which could just as well have been called “Carsonia” after its father Edward Carson.

Willie Kerr was a barber who lived above his premises at 47 Old Lodge Road, The murder squad arrived, banged on the door and Willie’s sister opened it, they pushed her aside, rushed up the stairs to Willie’s bedroom and dragged him out and into their vehicle and drove off. His sister witness the whole proceedings and could easily identify the abductors/murderers, no such opportunity was given. A strange turn took place in this abduction, instead of being took to the same fields as Alex McBride and Malachy Halfpenny the assailants chose to drive even further to the a remote lane called Dan O’Neill’s Loney, which ran across fields from the Springfield Road to the Whiterock Road which was in those days known as Sinclair’s Loanan.(Also known as “Dan O’Neill’s Loney). This gave rise to people suspecting that Christie Clarke had a hand in this murder as he lived only a stones throw from the lane and perhaps suggested it as a ‘good spot’, we can be pretty sure, judging by the torture and mutilation of Willie Kerr’s body later, that Head Constable Giff was there.

No doubt this is all sickening reading, and it brings to mind what someone said recently, “..I am not asking you to forget the past.. but to remember it differently”. I am not sure what that means, brush the bad bits under the carpet, fudge and re-write history?. But whatever was meant by it I can only feel that the suggestion is to not relate history as it happened, and to tell the story of the McMahon Murders other than how it happened would indeed be an exercise in deceit and omission, for here was the ultimate act of terrorism, even the British press abhorred it. The “Belfast Telegraph” covered it extensively.

State Murder Unabated

Owen McMahon, a respected Belfast Catholic publican lived with his family at 3 Kinnaird Terrace, off the Antrim Road, at 1.20 am on 24^th March 1922, the family were in their beds, loud bangs were heard then running footsteps on the staircase. On the landing armed men snapped out orders for the males to get downstairs, they herded the females into a back room. The male members of the family, along with a barman, Edward McKinney, from Donegal, who was stopping with the family were taken into the large front downstairs room and one of the most evil and shocking events of the troubles took place.

The front door of the McMahon home had been burst in with a sledge hammer, according to Constable Furlong, who later reported to the I.R.A that two members of the murder squad, Constables Sterritt and Gordon had went to a Corporation workman’s hut at Carlisle Circus and took away a sledge hammer. Having gained excess to the house and gathered all the males together shots rang out and the intruders ran from the building led by D.I. Nixon.

District Inspector John William Nixon R.I.C. Was described in the Michael Collins Intelligence files as “ an arrant coward, and never ventures abroad unless accompanied by an escort in civilian clothes“. The cowards had left five dead and two dying. Owen McMahon.(Father) (50) Thomas McMahon (15) Frank McMahon (24) Patrick McMahon (22) Edward McKinney (25) Wounded.. John McMahon (21) Bernard McMahon (26) , Both John and Bernard died later.

All innocent Catholic people, sacrificed in an orgy of bigotry and sectarianism so that Carson’s “Northern Ireland” could be established with its built in majority and a fearful, frightened Catholic minority, brutalised and intimidated to the point of total acceptance that this was to be their lot in the Orange Statelet, they were to be second class citizen’s of a six county “Ulster” ,but the reality was that the treatment dished out to them made them First Class Citizens Of Ireland, they now had something to hope and live for...the fall of the Orange Statelet, the end of bigotry and discrimination and they held the dream of a United Ireland in their hearts. A country where all people could live in peace and harmony, where all the children of the nation would be treated equally, free from the manipulation of an English Government Another human sacrifice was that offered up on the High Altar of Carsonia , which should and must be recalled is the murder of Constable. J. Turner, shot dead by Nixon’x murder squad and the incident made to appear as if Turner had been shot by Catholics from Carrick Hill, this so that the murder gang could have an excuse to storm into the area in ‘pursuit of the gunman’.

Again I would draw your attention to that Intelligence Report supplied to Collin’s Government at the time by R.U.C men who wished to distance themselves from the acts of Nixon and his squad. The Confidential report reads,

“.... Saturday, 2^nd April 1922, on the Old Lodge Road, a policeman was doing duty alone at the corner of a loyalist street. The Brown Square Barracks is six storeys high and commands the entire locality and policemen have often been witnessed sniping from the barrack roof into the adjoining nationalist area. A shot was fired and the policeman(Turner) fell dead. From the position he was standing in it would have been impossible for the shot to have been fired from the nationalist district which, at the period, was under the control of the 2^nd Battalion, Belfast Brigade; all arms and ammunition and movements of all volunteers in the district were faithfully accounted for. So it must be taken that this man was shot by some of his fellow policemen to provide the desired excuse for the ‘reprisal’ which immediately followed “.

An R.I.C Informant related the following as to what happened next....

“Constable Gordon entered the Barrack Room, seized a sledge hammer( probably the one used in the McMahon murder), called for volunteers for reprisals, and this was objected to by one man whose name I fail to remember, Nixon, Gordon and the remainder of the gang accompanied by a number of “B” Specials, rushed into Arnon Street with an armoured Lancia, riddled the nationalist houses, beating and kicking women and children, and murdered seven persons. Some were shot, others had their brains dashed out with the sledge hammer; one man was in bed with a baby one year old, was battered to death and the baby was shot beside him. This was the most dastardly ‘reprisal’ ever carried out by Nixon, and in this particular locality (Carrick Hill), he made the lives of the people unbearable by permitting the men in the Barracks to snipe at the residents on their way to work”

“The military,(Norfolk Regt) , who were stationed on picket duty, were thoroughly cowered by this gang who, on several occasions, shot at and threw bombs at the soldiers, with the intention of getting them to run amok and shoot up the area.”

The man beat to death as he lay in his bed was ex-soldier Joseph Walsh his son Michael was also shot dead 14 year old Frank later died of his wounds. 40 year old Joseph MacRory was shot at 15 Stanhope Street, Bernard McKenna was shot dead at 26 Park Street, 70 year old William Spallin was shot dead in his bed at 16 Arnon Street, he had that day just buried his wife. Ironically Nixon had to order the shooting of a policeman to justify this orgy of death.. and the policeman was a Protestant !. Many other Carrick Hill residents were murdered in the 1920 troubles. All this in no backwoods region of the world, for remember here in Belfast at that time they were turning out the biggest ships afloat, had the biggest Linen and Rope industry in the world.

The Bombing Of The Weaver Street Children

On 16^th February 1973 a funeral procession weaved its way through Philadelphia on its way to the Good Shepard Church, an old lady was being buried, but a wreath carried an inscription, “Suffer Little Children”, the old lady was Robina Ryan, a Tricolour draped her coffin, a guard of honour marched alongside. Robina was being given the respect and honour of a first class Irish Citizen living in America, but in that part of Ireland where she had immigrated from they deemed her a Second Class Citizen of Ulster.. merely because she was a Catholic.

Robina was indeed lucky to even reach old age for as a child in Belfast, as she played skipping with her little friends in Weaver Street in 1921 a unionist threw a bomb wounding many of the children. She carried a serious neck scar inflicted all those years earlier in Carsonia to her grave in Philadelphia. U.S.A.

One year later, in 1922, a unionist once again threw a bomb among children playing in Weaver Street, killing two instantly and wounding twenty, some of whom died later from their wounds. Weaver Street off York Road, just a short distance from “Buck Alec’s” home area, came in for repeated unionist attacks from R.I.C/unionist murder gangs who never let up until the whole Catholic community fled the area. The very priest, Fr. McGrath was shot and wounded while he attended his duties visiting elderly and sick parishioners in their homes.

Shore Street ran alongside Weaver Street and it was from here a young family, the Williams, were burned from their home despite the heroic efforts of the uncle Richard Fay, the Williams first were housed in rooms at Lancaster Street then eventually were re-housed in a new house at Amcomria Street, Beechmount, it was here the mother , Mrs Williams gave birth to her son, Tom. The houses as the name “Amcomri” suggests, was built by American funds to relieve the plight of the burned out Catholic families in Ireland. That young baby, Tom Williams, in adulthood joined the Irish Republican Army and was executed at Belfast’s Crumlin Road Prison 2^nd September 1942. His very remains were kept in captivity at Crumlin Goal for 60 years before being released, to be interred with his loved ones at Milltown Cemetery. The removal of Tom’s remains were due to the closure of the infamous Prison where earlier in the 1867 another Irish Patriot, Fenian, William Harbinson had died whilst in captivity there.

Insert Pic.30 One man who helped greatly raise the money in the U.S.A to build the houses in Amcomria Street was the much loved local patriotic writer, and author of “As I Roved Out”, Cathal O’Byrne, who toured the states in the 1920’s giving concerts at which he would sing and recite some of his many great poems. My uncle, Richard Graham, an accomplished musician was living in Los Angeles at that time and was part of the musical back up that supported Cathal at the concerts throughout the Western States. Richard’s son and daughter, Richard Jnr. and Doris., and grand daughter Cathy Graham were instrumental in setting up my own tour of the Californian Radio and Television Stations in April/May1981 to counteract the black propaganda touring British politicians were spreading out there on the Hunger Strikers, particularly Bobby Sands who was in the last days of his life. Thankfully we were able to enlighten many American people as to the historic and ongoing injustices perpetrated against northern Catholics. Richard Graham Senior immigrated firstly to Canada, from where he lived in Dromore Street, Ballinahinch, during the 1920’s troubles and recorded much on the sectarian attacks on Catholic’s and their homes in that town.

County Inspector Harrison who also played a leading and active part in the Murder Squad, was promoted to City Commissioner of the new Royal Ulster Constabulary, (R.U.C) on the formation of that body, his accomplishes, those who lived, all received promotion and awards, D.I. Nixon was even awarded an “M.B.E” (Member Of The British Empire). in 1923. “..for services rendered by him during the troubled period”, his murder of Catholic men women and children were considered “valuable” to the British Empire?. He had a falling out with his unionist partners later when he felt they had not offered him a suitable promotion in the new R.U.C, he actually threatened to expose those in the Unionist Cabinet who had a hand in organising or turning a blind eye to the actions of the state’s Police Murder Squad in murdering innocent Catholic people. These are not mere allegations I am making here, for now after two generations many secret and confidential files are available to any who wish to seek the truth and hopefully grow from the experience. Simply burying ones head in the sand or carefully sanitising history will not make the truth go away, truth is The lesson is there for Catholic people and indeed working class Protestants who sadly allowed themselves to be manipulated by those in high positions both politically and commercially. Fears were created in the minds of those workers by an exploitive ruling and upper class, big land owners, Mill Owners, Ship Builders and such like Financial Giants. These working class people sold their souls to a class other than their own and went out and protestant people died, either in error or otherwise, at their hands. These men became “A”, “B” and “C” Special Police Constables, many of them illiterate, as we will see, these then were the “Soldiers Of Carsonia”. They could loot, burn, terrorise or murder almost at will, that is, ...until their Masters decided to throw them away.... !.