(Forwarded)
From: Arm The Spirit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Who Killed Joseph O'Connor?
The recent murder of a Real IRA member in Belfast has served to
underline increasing tension in the North between the RIRA and
the Provisional IRA. The RIRA seems to have increased its
membership to pre-Omagh levels. If everybody seems to know who
the killers are, why has there been no official reaction?
By Liz Walsh
Ballymurphy, west Belfast in the third week of October and
it's like the bad old days never went away. Black flags hang from
lampposts through-out the web of narrow streets in this
Provisional IRA stronghold, reminiscent of times thought long
since gone. Beneath them, people huddle in little clusters,
lamenting yet another republican death. Familiar scenes in an
all-too familiar setting.
Joe O'Connor was the Belfast Commander of the Real IRA
(RIRA). What set his murder apart is that it was carried out by
republicans with the finger of blame being pointed firmly at the
Provisional IRA. Also remarkable is the absence of official
reaction. As Magill goes to press, ten days after the murder,
Sinn Fein, the SDLP, the Catholic Church and the British and
Irish governments have not condemned the killing. Even more
significant is the fact that they have so far ignored what is,
prime facie, a breach of the IRA ceasefire.
Few believe the Provisional IRA denial that it carried out
the killing. Joe O'Connor was shot seven times in the head in
broad daylight on October 13 outside his home on Whitecliffe
Parade. Some of O'Connor's family recognised the two men who shot
him; so too did others in Whitecliffe, as did a plethora of other
eyewitnesses. Between them on three occasions, witnesses saw
seven members of the IRA unit - the gunmen, two scouts and three
others waiting in getaway cars. All are local members of the
Ballymurphy/upper Springfield IRA, they say.
Little doubt then as to who was responsible for the killing:
the only imponderable is motive. Joseph O'Connor was a member of
the staunchly republican Notorantonio family, who have lost
several family members during the Troubles. O'Connor's
grandfather, Francisco, was murdered by Loyalists in 1987.
As Belfast Commander, O'Connor had been recruiting on behalf
of the RIRA with some success. The new recruits are mainly young
with no previous involvement in republican politics.
Until recently, the RIRA had no base in west Belfast. It was
and is a Provo stronghold. Apparently, though, the Provos were
sufficiently concerned about the possibility of the dissidents
getting a foothold in Ballymurphy to kidnap O'Connor's uncle,
Anthony Notorantonio, on March 15 last.
The IRA took him to a house in west Belfast, stripped him
and questioned him about membership of the Real IRA. Joseph
O'Connor reacted by getting together a RIRA unit and kicking in
the doors of local Provisional IRA men demanding his uncle's
release. According to another uncle, Victor Notorantonio, who
acted as a mediator, both sides gave assurances that "there would
be no feuding. They (the Provisionals) wanted it sorted out", he
told Magill. "They killed Joe, everybody in the area knows who
did it."
Although the Real IRA has denied it, tensions between the
two groups have heightened in recent months. With a second
inspection of Provisional IRA arms dumps imminent, the Provos are
fully stretched trying to pacify those in their own ranks not
overly enthusiastic about decommissioning. At the same time, the
rate of attacks by the Real IRA has intensified (panel in
article). With the Continuity IRA seen as a paper tiger, the RIRA
was there as an alternative for those still hankering after
military activity. Republican observers felt it was only a matter
of time before a RIRA man was "taken out, as a shot across the
boughs."
If so, Joe O'Connor was perfect. Regarded as somewhat of a
loose cannon, he was apparently "pretty quick with his fists" and
had been involved in at least one fistfight with a local Provo.
If the Notorantonio family is correct, and the Provos did
interrogate Anthony Notorantonio about RIRA membership, it's
clear that the seeds of a feud existed before the kidnapping last
March.
The IRA may have had a second reason to feel aggrieved by
Joe O'Connor. The Ballymurphy man was close to a cigarette
smuggling operation, of which some of the proceeds had for years
been diverted to the IRA. Informed sources believe that at least
some of that money would now go towards funding the RIRA, a group
the Provos were trying to stamp out.
If, as believed, the Provos decided they could take O'Connor
out, they could not have chosen a better time to do it, in the
wake of the Panorama Programme (which named four suspects in the
Omagh bombing), the harrowing evidence emanating from Omagh
inquest and the current wave of arrests in the south.
"We Don't Want Retaliation"
Joe O'Connor's family are in no doubt as to the reason he
was killed. "He was killed because he was a member of Oglaigh na
hEireann. Why don't they stop denying it and come clean, come out
and tell the truth?" said Charlotte Notorantonio, O'Connor's
aunt. His mother Margaret said her son had just closed the door
and went out to the car when they heard shots.
"We Saw Them Running Away, We Know Who They Are"
Anthony was in the car when the gunmen opened fire but he
escaped. The weapons used, a 9mm Browning pistol and a revolver,
were subsequently found to be clean. "The family don't want any
retaliation, we don't want any more republican deaths. But we
want them to own up, we've had nothing but constant denial."
Ballymurphy Sinn Fein councillor Sean McKnight is standing
by the IRA statement. "I would stand by what Gerry Kelly and
Martin McGuinness has said publicly and by the IRA statement. I
haven't spoken with the family yet so I don't know where they're
coming from. But if the IRA killed him they would say so, and
they would say why they did it."
Previous denials show that is not necessarily the case: the
IRA denied any part in the Florida gun-running operation, they
also denied, initially, any responsibility for the murders of
Garda Jerry McCabe and postman Frank Kerr in the mid-nineties.
At 8 p.m. on October 19, between 70 and 80 mainstream
republicans swarmed into Ballymurphy in cars, vans and on foot. A
group of women picketed the home of the republican critic,
Anthony McIntyre, while others, mainly men, walked up and down
from the Whiterock Road to Divismore and Whitecliffe. It was an
extraordinary show of strength. Those watching were left in no
doubt as to who controlled Ballymurphy.
"They Are Back Pre-Omagh"
The previous day, O'Connor had been given a full
paramilitary funeral with a volley of shots fired over the
coffin. The RIRA took the opportunity to show off its new
"hardware": pistols, rifles, and submachine guns. Despite blanket
surveillance by the two police forces they are apparently fairly
well armed. Recent RIRA arms finds in the south included an
updated version of the RPG 18 rocket launcher manufactured in
1990 capable of piercing up to 375mm of armour. It was the first
weapon of its kind found in the Republic. A further ten RPGs were
included in a weapons arsenal on route from Croatia to Ireland
last July but the haul was seized by Croatian police. Small
quantities of semtex, which could have been filched from Provo
dumps pre-1997, have also been found as have brand new
sub-machine guns.
Numerically, the RIRA strength is back to where it was
before Omagh: about 120 members. It has the same core leadership
but below that, the membership appears to have changed
significantly. Apart from the defection to the RIRA last May of a
senior border Provisional, it has had limited success in
attracting Provos disaffected with the current strategy. Most of
the new recruits are very young, some still in their teens.
Mainstream republicans regard some suspiciously as being on the
fringes of criminality, although the Real IRA has denied it, one
new member from the Falls is a well known cannabis dealer; his
involvement is thought to be purely opportunistic rather than
ideological.
Last spring, security forces in the Republic questioned
members of a Real IRA 'colour party' near the border. "They were
people we've never seen before, they were very young, little more
than kids", said a senior source.
Geographically, the organisation's power base is still South
Armagh/North Louth although as recent events have shown, they now
have a presence in Belfast. Despite its recent sabre-rattling,
the RIRA does not have the capacity to mount a sustained military
campaign. Neither does it have the capacity to take on the
Provisional IRA should a feud break out between the two rival
groups - the Provos would wipe them out. Evidently they have
informers in their ranks - one at senior level - given the high
number of seizures and arrests.
But its very existence offers an alternative to the Adams'
strategy and therein lies the danger for the Provos in the weeks
and months ahead. Part of the political strategy includes a
readiness to enter coalition in the south with Fianna Fail - or
whichever party has the numbers to form a government - after the
next election. As a pre-requisite, Sinn Fein will have to hive
off the IRA once and for all. This involves uniting a jittery
republican base so the last thing the Provos want is to leave
another standing army behind. They will attempt to crush
resistance before it begins. This is the dominant theory to
emerge after the O'Connor killing but in the absence of hard
evidence, the motive remains entirely speculative.
Outside of Provisional republican circles there is no doubt
that the IRA is responsible for the killing, one that would
necessarily have had to be sanctioned at the top - at Army
Council level.
If the family know who shot him, if eyewitnesses and the RUC
know who did it, it makes the official silence surrounding the
killing all the more remarkable. At this stage, there is more
evidence available of IRA involvement than there was available in
the killing of Andrew Kearney, the Belfast man murdered by the
IRA in July 1998. His killing was condemned by the Bishop of Down
and Conor, senior members of the British and Irish governments
and Opposition politicians and led ultimately to Sinn F�in being
suspended from the Stormont talks.
In contrast, there appears to be a Nelsonian blind eye
turned to the O'Connor killing and a de facto breach of the IRA
ceasefire.
The murder happened two days before the Taoiseach Bertie
Ahern made his Bodenstown speech, in which he promised to crush
the Real IRA. There was no reference to the O'Connor killing. The
Catholic Church, the SDLP and the Opposition politicians have
maintained a deafening silence. The question is why?
(Source: Magill Magazine - November 2000)
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