Collusion: RTE documentary on British state death squads in N. Ireland

[Paul Rigby]

Description: http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/collusion.html

Collusion is a special feature length television documentary commissioned and funded by RTÉ.

In a first television interview, a member of the gang linked to the Dublin Monaghan bombs and many other atrocities reveals that their intent was to foment a civil war - and in that event, they were confident they could "crush the other side".

Taoisigh Jack Lynch and Liam Cosgrave were met with flat denials when they raised collusion with their British counterparts. The film will reveal that the British were well aware of it.

Supported by archive evidence and interviews with senior Irish and British officials of the period, the film reveals that the British Army decided early on it could not fight a war on two fronts and concentrated its efforts on "destroying" the Provisional IRA, while at the same time saying publicly it was dealing with the conflict in an even handed way.

Such was the extent of collusion in the eighties, the film will also reveal that an RUC Special Branch officer tipped off a UDA brigadier about an informer. It could easily have led to the man's murder. Northern Ireland's Police chief George Hamilton confirms a police officer could face serious charges.

In the programme, a former UDA brigadier also names senior loyalist paramilitaries he believes were working as agents for the security forces.

A former head of RUC Special Branch also reveals that he personally asked the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for a legal framework for the handling of agents within paramilitary groups. This didn't happen because, in effect, HMG was saying "carry on - just don't get caught".

Even as late as 2003, six years after the Good Friday Agreement , when a former Police Ombudsman began to investigate new murders involving collusion she reveals for the first time that senior British Government officials tried to put pressure on her not to probe. She eventually uncovered truly shocking levels of collusion between police officers and what she described as serial killers.

A former Chief Constable of the Northern Ireland police service also states that justice would have been better served if a British Army brigadier, in charge of a secret unit that ran an agent convicted of multiple murder conspiracies, had faced a public trial.

The film will also reveal that a new collusion investigation has been launched into 19 other linked killings and a former British security minister admits that the scale of collusion was much greater than he imagined.

6 days remaining, duration: 1hr 22mins

[video]http://www.rte.ie/player/gb/show/10431974/[/video]

Secret Death Squads Backed by Thatcher Gov't Killed Hundreds in N. Ireland

01:21 17.06.2015(updated 11:31 17.06.2015)

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150617/1023454191.html

Following the broadcast of an Irish documentary, a number of human rights groups are calling on London to take responsibility for its role in colluding with paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. These actions allegedly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Catholics, all to support the Crown.

In 1974, a coordinated attack was launched in the Irish cities of Dublin and Monaghan. On May 17, three car bombs were detonated during rush hour in the nation's capital. Only 90 minutes later, a fourth explosion went off in Monaghan, just south of the border with Northern Ireland. Thirty-three people were killed. An estimated 300 were injured.

The loyalist paramilitary group Ulster Volunteer Force claimed responsibility for the attack, and in a recent Irish documentary, "Collusion," a member of the group claims that the bombings were conducted under direction from the British Army. The goal: to implement a civil war.

This is only one of several claims levied against the Thatcher government for its role in the Troubles, and in the face of "overwhelming evidence of collusion," human rights groups and Irish officials are calling for the British government to own up.

"As a result of the RTE programme 'Collusion' showing the knowledge by British Prime Ministers of the murder of Catholics with British army assistance, it is time for the Irish Government to stop asking and start demanding," said Senator Mark Daly, according to Irish Central.

The allegations suggest that the British Army's secret Force Research Unit (FRU) recruited and managed members of paramilitary organizations in its efforts in "destroying" the IRA.

These gangs, acting under orders from the army, executed hundreds of innocent people. According to Anne Cadwallader, author of "Lethal Allies," a single loyalist group may have been responsible for the deaths of 120 Catholics.

Irish Men Allegedly Tortured by British Army Seek Formal Apology

Other evidence also points to British involvement in the assassination of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. Famed lawyer of Bobby Sands, leader of the Republican hunger strike in Maze Prison, Finucane was gunned down by members of the Ulster Defence Association who were acting as paid informants for the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

"Carry on just don't get caught," British government officials told former Special Branch head, Raymond White, according to the documentary.

Allegations also say Thatcher's administration attempted to downplay investigations into murders involving collusion, and former Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Lown said that authorities in London were still involved in covering British involvement as late as 2003.

"Soft diplomacy has got us nowhere it's time to ask the EU, UN and the Hague war crimes tribunal to carry out investigations," Daly said. "The British Prime Minister and State were no better than a third world dictatorship ordering a terror campaign by murder gangs who deliberately and indiscriminately murdered Catholic and Irish Citizens."

Northern Ireland Peace Process: Any Lessons for Today?

On Thursday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny will meet with Prime Minister David Cameron in London. While part of those discussions will involve economic matters between the two countries, Kenny is also expected to discuss "legacy issues," seeking British documents which detail the collusion.

But even if Kenny succeeds, it may be too late.

"The initial British response at political level was denial. The second phase was usually cover-up and the last phase eventually was apology," former secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs Sean Donlon said during the documentary.

"But the apology, of course, never came in the lifetime of the administration which had been involved."