AUTHOR OVERLOOKS DAMNING OMAGH REPORT AND 'SHOOT TO KILL' POLICY
Author overlooks damning Omagh report and 'shoot to kill9 policy
BY DARACH MacDONALD
It seems more than extraordinary that a book that sets out to detail a 29-year career in the RUC Special Branch that ended in 2002, effectively tells nothing about what happened to the protagonist after the collapse of the "supergrass trials" of the early 1980s. But that is not even the most damning aspect of this book.
Author Alan Barker was the main handler for Raymond Gilmour, Derry informer and key witness in one of those show trial proceedings. The initial chapters of the book - subtitled 'Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch' - can be seen as a prelude to recruiting Gilmour, and with the end of the chapter on 'The Supergrass Trial' on Page 219, the author wraps up proceedings on Page 240.
At no point could it be described as an expose of what it was like on the ground in the RUC Special Branch, through the pretence for this is made constantly. Instead it is a long moan about what an exemplary bunch the Special Branch members are. It sets out the 'Goodies' and the 'Baddies' and brooks no contradictory evidence of what there is an ample supply. So in those final 21 pages and the 219 which preceeded, there is but a cursory mention of the Patten Report; none of its description of the "force within a force"; nothing about the 'Shoot to Kill' policy; merely a passing dismissal of all the evidence of collusion in terrorist crimes; nothing whatsoever about the Police Ombudsman's damning report on the Omagh atrocity investigation and its serious allegations about how Special Branch - and its former commander Ronnie Flanagan - had sought to frustrate enquiries at every turn. There are pointed references to alleged IRA drug-dealing contrary to PSNI evidence and the usual stuff about Castlereagh spying and other alleged transgressions, while nothing is mentioned of Loyalist killing sprees. What is most shocking about this book is how obviously unreconstructed its author's views are.
There is powerful and compelling evidence that the RUC Special Branch acquired extraordinary powers over 30 years of the conflict here and it used these powers in what amounts to a criminal conspiracy. In its machinations, it operated as a covert unanswerable body of armed protagonists in the conflict who caused serious concerns among their own colleagues. But Alan Barker sets out to paint a picture of selfless heroism and uses every single page to sermonise about the evils of republicanism. His choice of facts, meanwhile, is thoroughly devoted to perpetuating the myths and twists that have mired us in bloody conflict for decades. On that score, there is nothing new.
So it is little wonder that the publishers - which have issued some extremely valuable books about the Troubles here, not least the monumental List Lives - use an incident from after Alan Barker's early retirement (after intensive sick leave) from the force to provide the shock value peg for publication.
Last year, a dozen armed and uniformed police officers with four detectives raided his home and seized manuscripts and other material, for this book.
It was a familiar scenario, as Alan Barker well knows. The irony in this instance is that it was a total waste of police time and effort. For there was not even the remote chance that the author of this book was going to spill the beans.
Shadows - Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch
By Alan Barker Mainstream Publishing; �15.99
BY DARACH MacDONALD
It seems more than extraordinary that a book that sets out to detail a 29-year career in the RUC Special Branch that ended in 2002, effectively tells nothing about what happened to the protagonist after the collapse of the "supergrass trials" of the early 1980s. But that is not even the most damning aspect of this book.
Author Alan Barker was the main handler for Raymond Gilmour, Derry informer and key witness in one of those show trial proceedings. The initial chapters of the book - subtitled 'Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch' - can be seen as a prelude to recruiting Gilmour, and with the end of the chapter on 'The Supergrass Trial' on Page 219, the author wraps up proceedings on Page 240.
At no point could it be described as an expose of what it was like on the ground in the RUC Special Branch, through the pretence for this is made constantly. Instead it is a long moan about what an exemplary bunch the Special Branch members are. It sets out the 'Goodies' and the 'Baddies' and brooks no contradictory evidence of what there is an ample supply. So in those final 21 pages and the 219 which preceeded, there is but a cursory mention of the Patten Report; none of its description of the "force within a force"; nothing about the 'Shoot to Kill' policy; merely a passing dismissal of all the evidence of collusion in terrorist crimes; nothing whatsoever about the Police Ombudsman's damning report on the Omagh atrocity investigation and its serious allegations about how Special Branch - and its former commander Ronnie Flanagan - had sought to frustrate enquiries at every turn. There are pointed references to alleged IRA drug-dealing contrary to PSNI evidence and the usual stuff about Castlereagh spying and other alleged transgressions, while nothing is mentioned of Loyalist killing sprees. What is most shocking about this book is how obviously unreconstructed its author's views are.
There is powerful and compelling evidence that the RUC Special Branch acquired extraordinary powers over 30 years of the conflict here and it used these powers in what amounts to a criminal conspiracy. In its machinations, it operated as a covert unanswerable body of armed protagonists in the conflict who caused serious concerns among their own colleagues. But Alan Barker sets out to paint a picture of selfless heroism and uses every single page to sermonise about the evils of republicanism. His choice of facts, meanwhile, is thoroughly devoted to perpetuating the myths and twists that have mired us in bloody conflict for decades. On that score, there is nothing new.
So it is little wonder that the publishers - which have issued some extremely valuable books about the Troubles here, not least the monumental List Lives - use an incident from after Alan Barker's early retirement (after intensive sick leave) from the force to provide the shock value peg for publication.
Last year, a dozen armed and uniformed police officers with four detectives raided his home and seized manuscripts and other material, for this book.
It was a familiar scenario, as Alan Barker well knows. The irony in this instance is that it was a total waste of police time and effort. For there was not even the remote chance that the author of this book was going to spill the beans.
Shadows - Inside Northern Ireland's Special Branch
By Alan Barker Mainstream Publishing; �15.99
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1795
Published Date: 09-Dec-04
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