{"id":4355,"date":"2018-10-18T09:56:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T08:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4355"},"modified":"2018-10-18T10:45:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T09:45:10","slug":"ira-east-tyrone-commander-claims-no-deal-done-with-uvf-after-secret-meeting-with-mp-francie-molloy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4355","title":{"rendered":"IRA east Tyrone commander claims no deal done with UVF after secret meeting with MP Francie Molloy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A former IRA leader in east Tyrone has disputed claims that loyalists and republicans reached an “understanding” after a secret meeting in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Fresh claims about the meeting have emerged just weeks after Sinn F\u00e9in MP Francie Molloy said he met two members of the UVF and a Protestant clergyman in a hotel car park near Dungannon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the meeting he claims an \u201cunderstanding\u201d was reached between republicans and loyalists and there were no more killings in the area.<\/p>\n

In an unusual move a former ‘Officer Commanding’ of the IRA\u2019s East Tyrone Brigade has claimed that the meeting took place without the knowledge or consent of the organisation\u2019s leadership in the area.<\/p>\n

Until recently few details about what is alleged to have happened at the 1993 meeting were known.<\/p>\n

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The former IRA man claims that Mr Molloy met with just one loyalist and the church minister.<\/p>\n

The loyalist, who was a member of the UDR, is believed by republicans to have been part of a UVF gang operating in the area at the time.<\/p>\n

The former Provo chief says the meeting was set up after the loyalist contacted an east Tyrone man he falsely believed to be a member of the IRA.<\/p>\n

The contact was in fact a republican sympathiser who later passed on the message to another republican.<\/p>\n

The ex commander claims the meeting was then arranged without consultation with the IRA\u2019s local command structure.<\/p>\n

He says that Mr Molloy was accompanied to the meeting by the contact and that a bitter row broke out between him and the loyalist.<\/p>\n

It has been suggested the contact then got out of the vehicle leaving Mr Molloy on his own with the loyalist and clergyman.<\/p>\n

The meeting was arranged after a suspected member of the loyalist murder gang was killed by the IRA.<\/p>\n

Both loyalists and republicans were active in the area in the run up to the meeting.<\/p>\n

But the former IRA commander has dismissed any suggestion that a deal was done to end the killings.<\/p>\n

He says that had the IRA been aware of the planned meeting the loyalist would have been killed.<\/p>\n

According to Mr Molloy\u2019s account the loyalist delegation was concerned about what the future held for them and indicated that the unit was planning to halt its activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message coming to me as a Sinn F\u00e9in representative was that this loyalist group was saying they were stopping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there were any other attacks in that area \u2013 there was an understanding that things were moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans say that security forces, including UDR members, continued to be targeted after the meeting.<\/p>\n

The IRA man claims that prior to the meeting several attempts were made on the loyalist\u2019s life while family members were also targeted.<\/p>\n

The UVF unit the man belonged to is believed by republicans to have been formed after the IRA shot dead UDR member Raymond McNicol near Cookstown in August 1988.<\/p>\n

He was killed after his car was sprayed with gunfire as he made his way to work.<\/p>\n

A member of the Orange Order, he had been in the UDR since 1976.<\/p>\n

After his death loyalists in east Tyrone launched a concerted retaliatory campaign.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in member Tommy Casey is believed to have been targeted by the murder squad. He was killed near Cookstown in October 1990.<\/p>\n

The car used by the killers was later found close to the spot where Mr McNicol was shot dead.<\/p>\n

Almost a year to the day former republican prisoner Sean Anderson was killed by the UVF.<\/p>\n

It is believed he was told by a senior RUC officer that he was the intended target when Tommy Casey was shot.<\/p>\n

After his murder campaigning priest Fr Denis Faul voiced concern that no-one had been charged and no weapons recovered after a series of sectarian murders carried out by loyalists in the Mid Ulster area.<\/p>\n

He also said the ballistic history of weapons used to kill Catholics had not been released and asked if any of the weapons had been stolen from UDR armouries.<\/p>\n

In the months after his murder three UDR members and a civilian worker were arrested and questioned by the RUC.<\/p>\n

Reports from the time say they were being quizzed about sectarian killings in the Mid Ulster area before being released without charge.<\/p>\n

Within weeks of their release a loyalist weapons stash was recovered by the RUC on a country road near Coagh in Co Tyrone.<\/p>\n

At the time it was reported that a rifle, submachine gun and revolver had been found.<\/p>\n

Through documents disclosed during an inquest into an LVF murder victim it is now suggested two of these weapons were used in other murders, including that of Sean Anderson.<\/p>\n

It has been claimed locally that the weapons may have been deliberately left for collection by the RUC by the loyalist murder squad.<\/p>\n

First appeared in the Irish News<\/p>\n

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