Victim's of The IRA

VICTIM'S OF THE IRA

michael paterson

Published by Michael Paterson, 2018.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

VICTIM'S OF THE IRA

First edition. July 16, 2018.

Copyright © 2018 michael paterson.

Written by michael paterson.

Table of Contents

Title Page

VICTIM'S OF THE IRA

Also By michael paterson

© 2017 Copyright By Michael Paterson 

Victim's of the IRA

Victim's the IRA is based on a true story. It is the author's own recollection of events told from this point of view, it is pretty powerful and harrowing. It's about a family in West Belfast whose young sixteen-year-old son gets kidnapped by the IRA and forced to participate in a crime. Ultimately, he gets arrested and charged by the police while his family's life disintegrates within the fractured Northern Ireland community. The story starts in 2010. The narrator and his wife, Christine, live in West Belfast with their children of different ages, some of whom have already moved out off the family home. The boys are Marcus, Seamus, David, Joseph and Dermot, and the young girls are Patricia and Nicole. David is out with Patricia one day, taking her to the shops, when he is accosted by strangers in a car. Understandably upset, Patricia races home to tell her family. After calling the police and searching the area, they eventually find out that David was arrested for taking part in an IRA crime. It's plastered all over the news – then hell breaks loose around the family. The neighbourhood is pretty nasty, filled with bullies, yobbos and violent criminals. David was already bullied at school and feared the area. When the thugs find out that David was implicated in an IRA plot, they start yelling at the family and vandalising the property. This behaviour spreads to the young girls as they walk to school. While the situation worsens, the family try to see their son in jail. The police, it sounds like, were treating the lad pretty harshly and hold off letting his family visit. He's a terrified young boy, told by the police that he is going to prison and withheld from his loved ones. When he does get to see them, he explains that he was kidnapped and forced into a few criminal activities, including the transport of weapons. It was all leading up to an assassination, apparently, though it was ultimately foiled by the police. Still, the men that were arrested with him tell the authorities that David was the ringleader. Eventually David is moved into a home for young offenders while he awaits a hearing. Although he feels safer and more secure, the pressure gets him very down. It is fortunate that the home is a lot more friendly than the jail, with staff available to talk and help the children manage. The family home is in Bangor, which means David's mum and dad have to travel by train every day to see him. During this time, the family are accosted several times by IRA elements ordering David not to talk or he would be assassinated along with other members of the family. All the while they notice a mysterious stranger following them. Back home things get worse and worse, with bricks lobbed at windows, eggs and paint thrown at the house, and the constant threatening tirade of brutal neighbourhood elements. It's pretty harrowing stuff – the family don't want the police involved for fear of making a bigger scene. Still, things escalate, and eventually they see people in the back garden with a gun – the oil tank being a target for arson. They eventually do call the police, realising the perpetrators live just behind them. However, they are again threatened by the IRA. Seamus is kidnapped towards the end of the book, beaten and told not to tell David not to talk. The bedevilled parents' worry is so great that they decide to look for alternate housing, away from Belfast – the violence in the city escalating. Eventually they are relocated to Bangor, where the threat of harm is much less. Still there's a sense of aftershock. There is still paranoia over more attacks and Christine is taken to hospital with severe asthma. At the end of the book, things take a better turn. The charges against David are dropped and he returns home. It is revealed that the stranger was an undercover policeman, sent to access any IRA ties. Christine makes a recovery and things definitely look up for the beleaguered family. I hope when it is finished, they find a little peace. Victim's of the IRA paints a picture that we are often afraid to look at. It's very easy to compartmentalise problems in Northern Ireland and gloss over the fact that they exist – still. In addition, the up close and personal view of a family harassed and spurned by their community is outright scary. It takes remarkable character to remove yourself from that type of situation. In the end, everything seems to work out, but the emotional scars must be indelible. This is a very real treatise on current events as much as it is a personal struggle. There are rough spots in any country, but this seems so acute in a way that most places aren't. Obviously, when you add religious tension and ethnic groups into the mix you can have problems. This seems like a modern day version, somewhere so familiar you would think it could happen on your street. Still, it does breed and display phenomenal composure not to react while your life is crumbling. Some would call it fear, but I call it remarkable strength.

Chapter 1

The school had finished for the summer and today was like any other day. We tried to get our son David to come out of his bedroom for a while and go outside for some fresh air. But he wouldn't because of the group of lads that were bullying him in school and also in the area that we lived in. We kept on at him to go out even for just a few minutes to get himself some fresh air because he was stuck in that bedroom all day every day. We finally got him to agree to go out and take his younger sister, Patricia around to the local shop. They left the house at 4 pm, and it was now 4.30pm, and they weren't back yet. I told my wife Christine that if they weren't back in another few minutes that I would go and look for them. I went and got my coat to go out and look for them, but as I was getting ready to leave, Patricia came running into the house crying and shouting. David was taken away in a car by two men, myself and my wife ran outside, but we couldn't see, David or the vehicle that our daughter was telling us about. We tried to calm Patricia down to find out what had happened. She was sobbing her we heart out and at the same time trying to explain what had happened, Patricia was only seven years old, we asked her to tell us what had happened on the way back from the shop. She told us that they were walking back home and that a car was driving behind them very slowly, and that there were two men inside it watching them, so David took Patricia through an alleyway that led them into the street behind our house, but as they reached the corner of our street the car stopped just in front of them, and two men got out and told David to get in because they wanted to talk to him. David said no, I won't get into your car and asked them who they were.

They told him to shut his fucking mouth, and to get into the car. They told his younger sister to go on home and that David would be back soon. My wife Christine told me to phone the police and to tell them what had just happened, so I called them, and I explained what had happened to David and about the car following him and his sister. The police asked if it could have been someone that he knew and could he have just went for a drive in the car, but i told them that David didn't bother with anyone and that he was always in his room and only left it to go to school and that he wouldn't get into a car with someone that he did, not know they asked me for a description of David and what he was wearing and also a description of the vehicle. I told them what David was wearing and that I couldn't describe the two men because I hadn't seen them. They said that they would inform their mobile patrols to keep a lookout for David and that I should phone them when David got back home again, they also told me to try and not worry too much and that if we could think of anything else I should phone them back again. I told my wife Christine what they said, and she said that she was going to call our other four sons and let them know what had happened. I told her that I was going to have a look around the area where we lived to see if I could find him. I searched everywhere that I could think of, I even searched up alleyways and the local graveyard, I asked anyone that I knew if they had seen David but no matter who I asked, the answer was always the same, no sorry, I haven't seen him but if I do I will tell him that your looking for him.

I had been searching for over an hour, and I still couldn't find David, so I decided to go back home and see if Christine had heard anything about David. On the way up the street to our house. I witnessed a group of the local hoodlums standing at the corner drinking, which only meant one thing and that tonight was going be a night of joyriding and fights in the area again, most of these thugs were in their early twenties, and you would think that they would have more sense than to be doing this kind of thing. I believe that the whole community would be thinking along the same lines as me and hoped that these idiots would have more sense than to be doing this kind of thing. I reached the house and Christine and Patricia were standing at the door, looking up and down the street waiting for David to walk up. I asked Christine if the police had phoned back or if she had heard anything about our son, but she hadn't heard a thing, her nerves were shattered, and Patricia was still upset and crying. Christine told me that she had phoned our sons and that they were on their way over to our house, and said that they would go and look for their brother also. They were all shocked when their mom told them, what had happened and was concerned about Patricia and kept asking if she was alright and that they would be here soon. I phoned the police back and asked if they had found our son, but they said that all they could do was to get their mobile patrols to keep an eye open when they were out on patrol because it was too early to be classed as a missing person until the next day, I couldn't believe what they were saying and said to them that David was taken away in a car by two men not known to our family and that we were anxious about him, but I was talking to a brick wall trying to get the policeman to listen to what I was telling him, I was getting annoyed with him, so I hung the phone up. My sons came rushing into the house you could see they were all worried about they're brother and wanted to know where he was and who had taken him away. And why him we decided to go out again and look for David, we decided to split up and check different places. Myself and Dermot were going to check the parks and graveyard, whilst Marcus, Seamus, and Joseph were going to check around the streets, and Christine was staying at home with the two girls, Nicole and Patricia in case David came home whilst we were all out looking for him.

We all agreed to meet up on the falls road in two hours time if we didn't find him beforehand. I told Christine to phone one of us if David came home, we all left and started to look for him. Dermot was asking people if they had seen David anywhere but no one seems to have seen him or even him being taken away in the car earlier today. It was as if he just vanished, we made our way to the graveyard and started looking for David, we went up and down the length of the graveyard and back and forward across it, but with no luck. We were in here for just over an hour, so we moved on to the park and started searching again we went round and round the park, but still we could not find David, we walked out of the park and onto the falls road and decided to go and meet up with Marcus Seamus and Joseph further on down the road, all the whilst we were looking everywhere that we could on the way down. Dermot said that he could not believe that we couldn't find him, it was quiet, evident that we were all getting more worried about David and we didn't know what else we could do to find him. We could see Marcus and the others further on down the road they were standing at the petrol station waiting on us. When we reached them we decided to check the leisure centre and the grounds before we made our way back home, to Christine and the two girls, we had all been out for two and a half hours searching for my son, and we couldn't think of anywhere else to look for him.

I told my sons that we should go home and that I would phone the police again and see if they had any news for us. We started walking home through the Beechmount estate and up through the Whiterock area, then through the Ballymurphy estate by the time we got home we had been out searching for over three hours and the more we searched, the more worried we were all getting for David. It was starting to get a bit dark by the time we reached the house. Christine shouted out, did you find David, when I told her that we had, not, her heart sank, and she started crying. I told her that I was going to phone the police again and see if they could tell us anything yet, but they still had nothing new to say to us. Christine was getting more worried and said that she was going to phone around the hospitals just in case something had happened to him, and we were sitting here not knowing anything. While she was making the phone calls I went and made us all a cup of tea myself, and our sons all went and sat in the kitchen, everyone was worried sick about David. Patricia and Nicole kept asking where David was and would he be long until he was back home. Marcus and Dermot had work in the morning but said that they were going to phone in sick, I told them not to and to go to work, and if there were any news then I would call them straight away and tell them, it was getting late now, it was 10.30 David has been away for six and a half hours now and still no news of him or where he might be. I told the two girls to get ready for bed as they had to get up early for the summer school clubs but they both said that they didn't want to go until they see their brother. I told them that he would be here waiting for them when they got back from the club. I couldn't think of anything else to say to them. Christine came into the kitchen and said to us that she had phoned the three hospitals, and none of them had anyone by his name in they care, in a way that was good news, but at the same time, we still didn't know where our son was or if anything had happened to him.

Our sons said that they were staying with us tonight just in case we got any news of where their brother was or if anything had happened to him. I think all of us were thinking the worst, but it was hard not to, especially under the circumstances. I told Christine that I was going out to the front of the house for a smoke and Dermot and Marcus said that they were going out also for some fresh air. I went and got my cigarettes and went outside. I was only out a few seconds, and Joseph and Seamus came out after me, I think they all just came out because they know what it's like around here at night time, with the local hoodlums known locally as the rug rats. They were well known for breaking into houses and stealing cars in the area and also for fighting with people for no reason at all. These scumbags would make the devil look like an angel, I finished my cigarette and was ready to go back into the house when a young girl and her boyfriend were walking past, and she said to me that she had seen David getting arrested along with four older men on the falls road about an hour ago. I asked her if she was sure that it was David. She said yes, it was definitely him, the police had him face down on the ground with a gun pointed at his head, and that they had the four older men on the ground also, and guns were pointed at them also, I couldn't believe what I was being told, his brothers just looked at each other they couldn't believe it either. I said thanks to the young girl and went inside and told Christine about what I had just been told. I told her that I was going to phone the police again and see what they say this time. Christine was at breaking point, and I don't think that she could take much more of this, I went and phoned the police station again and asked if they had found David. But they said that they hadn't, so I told them about what I had just been told, and they told me that they would make some inquiries and phone me straight back.

Nearly an hour has past and we are still waiting for the phone call, I went outside for a smoke and to try and get my head around what the girl had told me, but none of it made any sense because David and the rest of our sons didn't believe in politics or anything like that. They have always kept away from any kind of trouble and this is out of character for David, way out of character, I heard the phone ringing and rushed in and answered it, it was the police they had finally called back, the man at the other end of the phone said that they had found David and that he was in custody in the serious crime unit at Antrim and he was going to be interviewed about terrorism. I couldn't believe what he was saying so I asked him if he was talking about the right David. He said that he was and that if we needed any more information we should contact the serious crime unit at Antrim then he hung the phone up. Christine phoned the crime unit and asked about David, and she was told that David was arrested on the falls road in west Belfast following a failed punishment-style shooting along with four other men, Christine told them about what had happened earlier when David and his younger sister went to the shop earlier today and that she reported it to the police, she also told them that David never leaves the house because of the bullying he receives in school and in our area nearly every day, but they were, not interested and just said that David would be getting interviewed soon and that they would get a doctor to check him over beforehand. Christine asked if she could go and see David but she was told no, not until he had been interviewed and that she should phone back tomorrow morning. Christine and the rest of us were worried sick about him and just couldn't believe what was happening, when Christine came off the phone, she broke down in tears, and his brothers were pacing the floor, they were all getting annoyed about it also, I was trying my best to keep them all calm I told them that the only way that we would find out the truth about what was going on was to get talking to David, but we would have to wait until the police finished the interviews with him, Dermot and Marcus both agreed with me and then Seamus and Joseph said that they also agreed but Christine couldn't think straight her head was all over the place. All she could think about was that her son was stuck in a place like that away from his family.

But one thing was for sure; she knew deep down that this was nothing to do with her son and that he must have been made to do something that he didn't want to do. It was way out of character for him to get mixed up in this kind of thing. I told Christine that we would have to get him a lawyer, And I also phoned the Serious Crime Unit and told them that my son was a minor and could not be interviewed without an appropriate adult present and asked if his mum or I could be present for the interviews taking place, they said no. And that they would get an adult to sit in on the interviews, someone such as a social worker because we were not allowed to sit in on the interviews in case we stopped David from answering any of their questions. So I told them to get my son legal representation, and they said to me that my son had already asked for a lawyer and that he would be there in the morning for the interviews taking place. The policeman on the phone was very abrupt and could not wait to get me off the phone, I told him that I would be phoning  back in the morning to see how my son was but the policeman just hung the phone up on me again, Christine could,not settle herself at all she was in a real mess about all of this. Marcus called all of us into the living room, he said quickly its on the news about David being arrested, we all rushed in to see the news, but all that it said was that four men and a teenage boy had been arrested on Belfast falls road in what appeared to be a failed paramilitary-style punishment shooting and that more reports would follow later, we were all dumbstruck was this really happening or was it some dream nothing seems real at the moment, we just couldn't get our heads around it.

I told Christine and the four boys that they would have to try and get some sleep because tomorrow was going to be a very long day and we needed to keep things as normal as possible for Nicole and Patricia. I said that we should send them to the summer school clubs as it would take their minds off things for awhile and Christine and our sons all agreed, so we all started to get ourselves sorted for bed to try and get a few hours sleep because we didn't know what tomorrow was going to bring, it was 2.30 in the morning and we had to be up at 7.00 am for the girls for the clubs and for the boys for work as well but they said that they were going to call in sick, but we told them not to and that we would phone them as soon as we heard anything. So we all headed off to bed, but none of us could sleep, we all had too much on our minds. Patricia woke up crying for David and asking where her brother was and wanted to know when he was coming home, but not one of us could give her the answer that she wanted to hear, i sat with her for awhile until she went to sleep again and there was no point in the rest of us trying to get back to sleep as it was now 5.45am and we had to get up in just over an hour, so I went downstairs and made a cuppa for the boys and me, Christine was asleep, so we let her stay there until it was time to get up Marcus, Dermot and Joseph all said that they were not sure if they should go to work today, but I told them that it would be silly just sitting about the house and that they should go and try and keep themselves busy. Seamus said he was staying with us as he had nothing on today and that he would bring the girls to the summer school club and collect them when it was over and bring them home for us. Marcus turned the television on to see if anything else was on the news about David and the others, but he only caught