Sunday, September 27, 2026

21 Reasons Why Drumcree Cannot Happen

Thinking a lot today about the cost of Drumcree. 

* Michael McGoldrick, a 31 yr old Catholic taxi driver. Only child, father of one and his wife was pregnant with their second when he was murdered by the UVF

* Dermot McShane, 35 yr old machine operator, killed by British army who knocked the hoarding he was behind

* Darren Murray, 12 yr old catholic boy, hit by a van after he ran across the road when taunted (again) by loyalist youths. His mother blamed Drumcree tensions for his death.

* Robert Hamill, 25, was kicked to death by a 20 strong loyalist gang, shouting 'kill him, kill the fenian bastard'. 

His family, who were with him for the 10 min long attack,  begged the 4 soldiers in the army van 20 feet away for help but they didn't move, only stepping out after it ended. 

* Sean Brown, 61-year-old married father of six and chairman of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA; was abducted by loyalists while locking the club gates. He was shot in the head six times. 

* Greg Taylor, an off duty RUC officer, kicked to death by a loyalist mob of bandsman, while leaving the pub one evening in 1997

* Bernadette Martin, 18 yrs, Catholic factory worker. She was shot four times in the head by an LVF gunman while she slept at the family home of her Protestant boyfriend. 

The gunman knew the family, came in through the always open back door and singled her out to murder.

* James Morgan was the second youngest of seven, just 16 years old, when he was abducted and murdered by the LVF for no other reason but that he was a catholic. 

He was tortured, beaten to death with a hammer, and his body doused in petrol and set alight. 

His burnt and mutilated body was found three days later in a waterlogged ditch used for the disposal of animal carcasses near Clough. 

* Gerry Devlin. Father of 2, murdered as he pulled up at the old St Enda's GAA clubhouse in Glengormley, a mainly Protestant area of North Belfast. 

* Seamus Dillon, 45, catholic doorman and father. Murdered by the LVF

* Philip Allen and Damien Traynor. Philip, a 34-year-old Protestant who had recently announced his engagement; and Damian, 25, a Catholic, and Philips soon to be best man; were friends since childhood. 

They died when an LVF gang opened fire indiscriminately in the Railway Bar, Poyntzpass in March 1998. As they burst into the bar, one of the gunmen shouted: "Get down, you bastards."

* Adrian Lamph, a 20 yr old catholic with a partner and 2 yr old son,  was widely respected as a decent man who loved animals, birds and music. An LVF gunman entered the council yard he had started working in, singled out Adrian as he was working at recycling bins and shot him at point blank range.  

* Ciaran Heffron. 22-year-old single Catholic student who was taking a short cut home from the local pub in the village of Crumlin after a night out with friends. He was shot by the LVF outside the bus station in Upper Main Street. A taxi driver found his body. 

* Richard Quinn, 11, Mark Quinn, 10, and Jason Quinn, 9 were three brothers who were murdered by the (UVF) in a firebomb attack on their home in Ballymoney. 

The sectarian attack was committed during widespread loyalist violence linked to the Drumcree stand-off. The boys were from a Catholic family and lived with their mother in a mainly Protestant estate. Catholic families in the estate had recently been sent death threats. 

Reverend William Bingham, the Orange Order's Grand Chaplain for County Armagh and one of the lead figures in the Drumcree dispute, said that "a walk down the Garvaghy Road by the Orange Order would be a very hollow victory, because it would be in the shadow of three coffins of little boys who wouldn't even know what the Orange Order is about". 

He said that the Order had lost control of the situation and that "no road is worth a life".

* Frank O Reilly was a catholic RUC officer, who died of wounds recieved when a bomb went off as he and RUC colleagues tried to stop an angry loyalist crowd from entering a catholic street.

The device, one of seven hurled at police from the crowd, shattered his riot shield and tore his helmet. 

A group calling itself the Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility for the explosions. His third child, a daughter, was just 15 weeks old when he died. 

* Brian Service, 35-year-old Catholic civilian, single, an unemployed construction worker was walking along Alliance Avenue when a loyalist gunman shot him several times in the head and back. Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility

* Rosemary Nelson, 41, was a Northern Irish solicitor from Lurgan, County Armagh. She was killed by a bomb planted under her car by an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, the Red Hand Defenders – a covername used on this occasion by the Loyalist Volunteer Force. 

* Elizabeth O Neill. a 59-year-old Protestant civilian, married with two children who was married to a Roman Catholic and lived at Corcrain Drive in Portadown. She was murdered when loyalists threw a pipe bomb into her home. It was believed that Elizabeth had picked up the bomb and was attempting to throw it out of the house when it exploded.