Inquiries revealed the change of heart on the Shankill is probably because Soldier F – who is due to stand trial for murder – is rumoured to be from the local area
Hugh Jordan
Today at 10:10
A 50-year battle between Paras and the Shankill community appears to be over.
For five decades, residents in the hardline loyalist area of west Belfast bore a grudge against the crack British army regiment.
Although best remembered for gunning down innocent Catholic civilians in Ballymurphy and Derry, the maroon-bereted super-squaddies were also detested in the close-knit Shankill where they also shot dead two middle-aged men.
Robert Richie McKinney (49) and Robert Johnston (50) were gunned down during a night of violence in 1972, when the Paras were accused of turning on the Protestant community.
Mr McKinney was hit by gunfire while driving along Machett Street in the heart of the Shankill. He was on his way to collect a relative who was due to finish work and the family didn’t want her walking home while there was rioting on the streets.
The fatal shooting of Robert Johnston from Sydney Street West was even more bizarre. Described at an inquest as a “harmless drunk”, he was struck by rifle fire from a Para near the Berlin Bar.
Johnston had just shouted, ‘The meek shall inherit the earth’ when he was shot dead. And an eyewitness said she saw a Para take aim and fire at the victim.
In a rare admission of guilt, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said Mr McKinney and Mr Johnston, who was shot minutes later, were nothing other than entirely innocent civilians caught up in a situation which wasn’t of their making.
Following the double-shooting, the UDA – which was still regarded largely a community-based organisation – held a fact-finding event in a library, where locals gave witness accounts of what happened.
A booklet condemning the Paras’ behaviour was published and sold on the streets.
And more recently, when other hardline loyalist areas came out in support of ‘Soldier F’ – a Parachute Regiment soldier currently facing murder charged connected to the Bloody Sunday shootings – the Shankill community remained silent.
For five full decades, the Paras were persona non grata on the Shankill Road as a result of the McKinney/Johnston killings.
And while loyalists in other areas sang the regiment’s praises by flying ‘We Support Soldier F’ flags, the Shankill Road people preferred to remain silent in memory of the two innocent civilians.
But in recent days a maroon flag bearing the silver-winged logo of the Parachute Regiment has appeared at the top of a flagpole in the middle of the Shankill Road. It flies alongside an Israeli flag and the Union flag of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The three flags are sited on the spot where 50 years ago the IRA carried out a savage bomb and shooting attack on the Bayardo Bar, killing five people. Survivors who stumbled out through the rubble were machine-gunned as they left.
Inquiries revealed the change of heart on the Shankill, which manifested itself with the flying of the Parachute Regiment flag, is probably because Soldier F – who is due to stand trial for murder – has ties to the local area.
One man who spoke said: “I believe the change came about because it is widely rumoured around here that Soldier F has links to the area.
“At the end of the day, he wasn’t personally involved in shooting anyone on the Shankill. But if he’s ties to the Shankill and he is being charged with committing murder on Bloody Sunday, then we should be supporting him.”
He added: “It’s as simple as that.”
The Paras responsible for the Bloody Sunday slaughter received fulsome praise from John Ross, a Shankill-born former member of the regiment, who writes occasionally on military matters.
“Right from the outset, my regiment has been branded, murderers, killers and all sorts,” he said.
“But we served with pride, we served with dignity, we were disciplined and we did our duty.
“Yes, we were a robust regiment and if you wanted a job well done, we would have done it.
“But we were just like any other regiment which served in Northern Ireland during Operation Banner.”
Eleven months after the Bloody Sunday massacre, the Belfast Telegraph reported that 30 members of the Paras had bought themselves out of the regiment.
While Soldier F is facing a murder charge, during their time in Northern Ireland many other Paras were charged and convicted of crimes ranging from armed robbery to theft.
by pickneyboy3000
25 comments
Shocker, so many placards in Unionist areas that they “stand with soldier F”.
Murdering innocents is serving with dignity, pride and discipline supposedly.
“At the end of the day, he wasn’t personally involved in shooting anyone on the Shankill. But if he’s ties to the Shankill and he is being charged with committing murder on Bloody Sunday, then we should be supporting him.”
He added: “It’s as simple as that.”
JFC, there’s no hope for these people.
Do they support all criminals from the area or just those that massacre taigs?
How the fuck is this even considered news, terrorists decide another terrorist isn’t that bad…
Unionism does some amount of crying for victims unless it’s Catholics.
Then they support murderers.
https://preview.redd.it/yjefcdxirkve1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b0c6d3be03c4742e2defe6f65e518d2f3068443f
“At the end of the day, he wasn’t personally involved in shooting anyone on the Shankill. But if he’s ties to the Shankill and he is being charged with committing murder on Bloody Sunday, then we should be supporting him.”
Disgusted by this statement, but not surprised.
“It was only fenians he murdered, not us”
The cognitive dissonance in NI, from so many morons of so many persuasions is mind boggling.
So because “he’s ties” to the Shankill, murder is fine and dandy. Thick as champ.
There’s just so much to unpack, in the article and more generally but a couple of notable “highlights” –
>
>Although best remembered for gunning down innocent Catholic civilians in Ballymurphy and Derry, the maroon-bereted ***super-squaddies*** were also detested in the close-knit Shankill where they also shot dead two middle-aged men.
Sorry but how do you follow a reference to two mass murders of innocent civilians by referring to them as “super-squaddies”. Who the fuck wrote this shit? Or is mass murder of civilians an indicator of quality in the British military? I know they’re famous for it worldwide, and the SAS have recently been committing mass murder of innocent villages in Afghanistan under false pretences, and they are involved with the IDF in order to facilitate their genocide in Gaza, but is that “super”?
>residents in the hardline loyalist area of west Belfast bore a grudge
I bore a grudge against my neighbour for letting his dog shit on my lawn. I think there should be something more than a grudge here; like a deep sense of hatred and revulsion maybe.
>Following the double-shooting, the UDA – which was still regarded largely a community-based organisation – held a fact-finding event in a library, where locals gave witness accounts of what happened.
This is absolute bullshit. Security forces knew full well that the UDA were committing murders and there are internal communications between the NIO and Security forces to that effect, and later that the UFF ( the UDA’s cover name for murders) were one and the same and for the purposes of internal communications there was no need to differentiate. Of course they lied about this in public and went on the attack whenever Nationalists or Irish politicians or U.S politicians tried to establish the link.
I didn’t think my disgust for loyalists could get any deeper, and yet here we are
The language and tone used in that piece is a fucking disgrace
Disgusting people
Why the Israeli flag? I don’t get the link?
Really does demonstrate the level of intelligence of this group of People. They were given their own Statelet and they fucked that up big style.
Nothing will melt the heart more than when u realise u can support a regiment that murdered a pile of ‘themmuns’… this place is depressing, bleak & twisted.
This is a pretty sad and disgusting turn on some of the little morals these people have. It was my Granda who was shot and murdered by the British Army that night, Solider J specifically, as he drove to pick up my Auntie.
He had just come home from traveling with work and his brother, who he hadn’t seen in years was home for a visit. He was in the car next to him when they shot him for no reason. It must have absolutely been horrific and from what I know of it, it was. The paras were scum who did what they wanted, including murdering innocent people, with zero recourse. Bring on the trials on every single one of them.
Was never aware there was any sort of grudge on the Shankill. Always assumed the families were told to keep their mouth shut and not rattle the nest.
Common phrase muttered in ex service clubs up and down GB – the 2 most useless things to fall out of the sky is bird shit and paratroopers
Morons etc.
Right so let me get this straight, because *Soldier F* has some alleged ‘*links*’ to the area, that’s enough reason to forget the fact that thug regiment murdered two completely innocent men?
‘*Soldier F didn’t shoot anyone here, so we’ll ignore what he’s accused of doing there*’ What a load of absolute ballix. The sentiment of this half wit is a total insult the memory of Robert McKinney and Robert Johnston, who were locals, **murdered** by the same regiment these ejits are now waving flags for. I just cannot get my mind around this.
‘*It’s as simple as that*’ is just code for ‘I’ve no real argument, but I’ve picked my side anyway.
“But if he’s ties to the Shankill and he is being charged with committing murder on Bloody Sunday, then we should be supporting him.”
Nothing to say besides what the actual fuck
“Well he killed more catholics than protestants, so he’s alright in our book, also Israel for some reason”
Pretty much a TL/DR
That’s balls, even as a loyalist I am certain I have seen para flags up
Comments are closed.