State collusion in the Murder of Billy Wright?

DEFTLEFTHAND

The RUC without doubt colluded with the Loyalist Paramilitaries in the murders of many Nationalists and IRA men, but did the prison service of NI play a role in LVF leader Billy Wrights assassination.

His group the Loyalist Volunteer Force a (splinter group of the UVF) swear that the UVF who had an influence at the time in the Prison Officers union organised the hit through communication with the INLA. The Loyalists were at war with each other at the time

They had prior form in this regard as they also fed the PIRA information to assist with the killing of their loose cannon Lenny Murphy in 1982

Did the UVF use the IRA to do their dirty work. Is there any truth to this theory?

Black Swan

MOD NOTE:
This OP may be better suited to the CT forum. Moving it there from Politics LOCKED so that the mods may review it for appropriateness.

Penn

Thread reopened for Discussion

harry Bailey esq

he was killed in the maze right? or was it maghaberry? i can't remember which one.either way both were max security prisons at the time,with segregated wings for loyalist/republican prisoners so it would be quite easy to believe that in order to carry out this killing the inla would have to have some sort of inside info to 'grease the wheels' a little.The thing id wonder is who supplied the info.The prison service,m15/m16 and loyalists would be the suspects obviously,but here's a question,could the inla have been given secret info by Sinn fein?By the way of secret info i would be directly referring to the concessions of the good Friday agreement which at that time were being secretly discussed by the main loyalist and republican parties and both governments?for instance all prisoners serving time for terror offences would be released on license?And had the provos claimed the killing surely the good Friday agreement would have been seriously set back due to the fact that Sinn Fein were aligned to pira,so by giving the info to the dissidents they could continue talks without being pushed from the table,and by acting on the info, the inla got themselves a major scalp with wright?

SoulandForm

You are wrong on Lenny Murphy.

However on George Seawright and even more so on Robert Bradford you may well be on to something. A lot of people from the north, on both sides, believe that Robert Bradford was set up because he was going to blow child abuse scandals; his death was very suspicious to put it mildly.

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The RUC without doubt colluded with the Loyalist Paramilitaries in the murders of many Nationalists and IRA men, but did the prison service of NI play a role in LVF leader Billy Wrights assassination.

His group the Loyalist Volunteer Force a (splinter group of the UVF) swear that the UVF who had an influence at the time in the Prison Officers union organised the hit through communication with the INLA. The Loyalists were at war with each other at the time

They had prior form in this regard as they also fed the PIRA information to assist with the killing of their loose cannon Lenny Murphy in 1982

Did the UVF use the IRA to do their dirty work. Is there any truth to this theory?

SoulandForm

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The RUC without doubt colluded with the Loyalist Paramilitaries in the murders of many Nationalists and IRA men, but did the prison service of NI play a role in LVF leader Billy Wrights assassination.

This is going to sound horrible but coming from Northern Ireland I remember Billy Wright's death because my mum was happy, and my mum is firmly Unionist and Protestant; I was shocked by this at the time but I understand now. Part of me feels that the British State and the INLA did the right thing; without his charismatic presence the LVF crumbled, with it who knows what would have happened?

That doesnt mean that my feelings are morally correct or that I would encourage other people to share them.

Tzar Chasm

the facts of the case would lead one to believe that either

the Maze was staffed with a bunch of utter incompetents, at various positions and levels of power, which culminated in a bizarre series of coincidences

there may have been some collusion or at the very least a lot of blind eyes turned, and protocols ignored.

evidence has come to light of state forces colluding with Loyalists in the past, would it be much of a stretch that they 'assisted' the inla in a task they were itching to fulfill.

Tzar Chasm

SoulandForm wrote: »

This is going to sound horrible but coming from Northern Ireland I remember Billy Wright's death because my mum was happy, and my mum is firmly Unionist and Protestant; I was shocked by this at the time but I understand now. Part of me feels that the British State and the INLA did the right thing; without his charismatic presence the LVF crumbled, with it who knows what would have happened?

That doesnt mean that my feelings are morally correct or that I would encourage other people to share them.

I'd say very few people were unhappy the night king Rat shuffled off to hell, and I doubt many would actively pursue a case against anyone who may have assisted in that, however the unfortunate FLIPSIDE to all this was the cowardly reprisal attack on a pub in Dungannon,where four people were wounded and one Former IRA man was killed. and those who assisted in perpetuating the bloodshed have that blood on their hands too

harry Bailey esq

SoulandForm wrote: »

You are wrong on Lenny Murphy.

However on George Seawright and even more so on Robert Bradford you may well be on to something. A lot of people from the north, on both sides, believe that Robert Bradford was set up because he was going to blow child abuse scandals; his death was very suspicious to put it mildly.

i don't think he was wrong about Lenny the butcher,i remember gusty Spence caught off record,but on tape,that a senior loyalist,possibly himself,provided a high ranking provo from the new lodge area info on Murphys movements,because as delf mentioned he was a loose cannon,as was wright.

DEFTLEFTHAND

He's an interesting guy to read up on actually, he spent his early years in South Armagh where he played Gaelic Football and was friends with many Catholics, his sister Angela later married a Catholic man from Tipperary who Billy became great friends with. She says his war was about keeping NI in the Union not about a hatred of Catholics/Fenians.

In his late teens after he'd moved to Portadown he fell in with the wrong crowd and was sworn in as a member of the UVF on the night after the Miami Show Band massacre in 1975. The ceremony sounds just like a Mafia induction, swearing allegiance and loyalthy on the Bible.

subrosa

There has been a question mark over the murder of Billy Wright almost since the day it happened with many suggesting that the British Government was involved. David Wright, Billy's father, campaigned for years to hold the British Government to account for what he felt was their involvement in the killing. The INLA have always denied that anyone else was involved.

There was an official investigation into the allegations of collusion was launched in 2005 haired by Lord MacLean. The inquiry team published their report in 2010.

The report in full is here http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc1011/hc04/0431/0431.asp

It's long, but the Guardian has a good summary here http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/sep/14/billy-wright-murder-incompetence-conspiracy

In short the inquiry found incompetence but not collusion. Despite the inquiry and the denials from the INLA, doubts remain.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/15/billy-wright-murder-northern-ireland

It should be remembered that the murder of Billy Wright met with the approval of almost every armed group in the North including the UVF. The Combined Loyalist Military Command had issued a death threat.