Patterns of Evidence IV - The Chapel Murders
In April 1994 the Irish Times carried a letter from a Belfast Catholic. It read:
In 1979, I went to Drogheda with my wife and two daughters to see the Holy Father. There we heard him say: 'Murder is murder and never let it be called by any other name.' We took comfort from his words.
The great and the good of church, politics and the law murmured their approval. In this some were hypocritical because, as future events were to show, they must, when they heard the Holy Father's words, have had mental reservations.
These people, suffering from an obsession with the 'constitutional imperative of reintegration of the national territory', must in reality have believed that murder could be called by another name.
Ten years ago, on 8 April 1984, my dear darling daughter, Mary, was murdered as she walked home from Mass with her mum and me. Mary's murder was carried out by members of an evil and brutal criminal organisation. Some of her killers were members of the murder machine, self-named Provisional IRA. At least one was a member of political Sinn Fein. Mary died, as she lived, gentle and full of grace, sweetness and love, and is now with God. May I say that on the day my lovely daughter was murdered her killer tried to murder my darling wife also.
At that time Mary lay dying on her mum's breast, her gentle heart pouring its pure blood on to a dusty street in Belfast. The murderer's gun, which was pointed at my wife's head, misfired twice. Another gunman shot me six times. As he prepared to fire the first shot I saw the look of hatred on his face, a face I will never forget.
While your constitution and laws may constrain your judiciary to hold that the killer was carrying out a political act, I can assure them that the hatred on that face came from the depths of Hell itself.
No doubt the constitution and laws of the allegedly Christian Republic would prevent the extradition of Mary's murderer, if he were found within its boundaries. Murder would not then be called murder but would be called by another name. Mary's killers are regarded as patriots; some even call them politicians.
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| 22 year school teacher Mary Travers |
The murder of 22 year old primary school teacher Mary Travers and attempted murderer of her mother and father Magistrate Tom Travers (whose letter is quoted above) as they walked home from Mass is now well known in Northern Ireland. While many murders from the 1980s and before have largely slipped from public consciousness the controversy which arose when Sinn Fein appointed the woman convicted of the murder, Mary McArdle, as Special Adviser to the Culture Minister (who incidentally is herself a convicted IRA bomber) ensured that people were reminded of it. The ensuing controversy led to the passage of Ann’s Law (named after Mary’s sister who campaigned for the legislation) by Stormont, banning the appointment of people with serious criminal convictions from holding positions as Special Advisers.
While Northern Ireland has been reminded of the Travers case in recent times what is less well known is that this was not an isolated incident. The murder of people coming from or going to their place of worship and the launching of attacks from church property was something the PIRA never had any qualms about.
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| Patrick Kerr |
Normally prison officer Kerr went to Mass inside the prison as he felt it was safer but that day, his 37th birthday, he attended mass in the cathedral because his wife and eldest daughter were at the funeral of his uncle across the border in Castleblaney.
In 2009 the mother recalled the impact of the traumatic experience on the Kerr children:
"Kristin had the most terrible nightmares, but being so young it perhaps didn't affect her as badly as the other two in the long term. Deirdre grew up overnight - from being a nine-year-old girl to being almost like the dad [of the family].
"I tried to keep them as occupied as I could - with piano, riding lessons, Scouts, anything to keep them busy and fill the void as best they could."
Reacting to the murder of Patrick Kerr the Catholic Primate asked: “Can anyone conceive of a greater crime than to murder a man in front of his family as he was coming from worshiping God?”
Reacting to the murder of Patrick Kerr the Catholic Primate asked: “Can anyone conceive of a greater crime than to murder a man in front of his family as he was coming from worshiping God?”
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| Hugh McCormac |
The Primate’s words clearly didn’t cause the PIRA to reassess their tactics as just a fortnight later Hugh McCormac, an RUC Sergeant who had been with the force for 20 years, was shot as he arrived for mass at the Graan Monastery near Enniskillen. He had just locked his car when he was shot. As he lay wounded a gunman ran up to him and fired at point blank range. He died holding his prayerbook and surrounded by his wife and children, David (15), Elaine (16) and Darren (9).
At his funeral Monsignor Sean Cahill said:
“The callousness of this deed, the sheer brutality of his murder scarcely bears thinking about. It is a crime against God and a crime against man. The law of the jungle prevails. That is the terrifying lesson of last Sunday morning. The Provisional IRA, for whatever twisted motive and supposedly in our name, trampled under foot every right of God and man. Those who carried out this dreadful deed, those who planned it or cooperated with it in any way, must bear a heavy responsibility for the rest of their lives. They will have to answer for it before God”.
Sergeant McCormac was an instructor in the RUC training centre in Enniskillen and some 60 recruits formed a guard of honour at his funeral while pupils from the local Catholic Grammar, Mount Lourdes, sang in the choir.
Days later there was a passing out parade for RUC recruits which Mrs McCormac addressed:
“Keep your heads held high and remember everything he told you. He regarded you as very special. Don’t harbour any bitterness. Be proud of your job and your uniform and be careful”.
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| Michael Cassidy |
Perhaps the most shocking case, however, was back in 1979 in Clogher.
Michael Cassidy’s sister told the inquest into her brother’s murder:
“Michael was a bit concerned about coming to the wedding so close to the border and in an area where he was well known. He hadn’t even decided during the wedding ceremony whether or not to risk going to the reception in Monaghan. He thought that might be just dicing with death too much, but he was on the alert even in the church”.
A witness recalled what had happened as Michael Cassidy left the church holding his 3 year old daughter’s hand:
“About 10 to 15 feet from the car park a man appeared from behind me to my left. He was carrying a rifle. Just then I heard a shot. By natural instinct I held out my arm and grabbed the rifle below the barrel. This man had a good grip on it and he wrenched it from me. Then I heard another shot behind me. Both men were firing. I turned round and saw Michael lying dead. He was shot through the head.”
The bride had just driven away with her new husband but looked back to see her brother lying at his wife’s feet. She later said: "I knew I would never forget my wedding day but I didn’t think that it would be because of my brother’s murder.”
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| Newspaper report of the Cassidy murder (click to read) |
At the funeral of the GAA player a Catholic Bishop told mourners:
“His family are going to ask themselves had their own neighbours - the people they grew up with and thought they could turn to in times of need - had these people a hand in this day?"
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| David Wray |
It wasn’t just Catholics the PIRA murdered in this fashion. One month after the Cassidy shooting David Wray, a 50 year old father of two and a member of the RUC Reserve, was getting out of his car with his 15 year old son and 19 year old daughter to go to worship in Claremont Presbyterian on Northland Road, Londonderry, when he was shot in the back at point blank range by at least two gunmen.
The IRA men had hijacked a car at St Colman’s Church, holding the driver hostage in the church during mass.
Following the murder a group of women from the Bogside and Creggan - strongly Catholic areas of Londonderry - sent a wreath to the home of the dead reservist signed by the “Christian mothers” of the area with a spokesperson for the group adding “Words cannot express how we feel about incidents such as this”.
We could consider some of the PIRA murders of which were committed from church grounds like that of an 18 year old soldier shot in the back in Crossmaglen, the soldier shot from a church door way, the policeman and soldier shot outside a church while mass was said inside causing pandemonium in the building with children fainting while others ran home screaming but perhaps it is best to return to Londonderry to round off this piece.
The pleas of the women of the Bogside and Creggan didn’t change PIRA policy on shooting people attending a place of worship. Three years after the Wray murder a remarkably similar fate befell the last RUC man to live on the city side of the Foyle.
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| Norman Duddy |
Norman Duddy had been stationed in Londonderry for 22 years and his family had just moved to the Waterside area two weeks previously but they were still attending Strand Road Presbyterian where he served on the church committee and was secretary to the scout group.
Two masked murderers drew alongside as he got into his car after leaving a service with his two young sons. The murder took place in front of other members of the congregation.
It later emerged that the IRA had initially believed Duddy was a Catholic and they had carried out reconnaissance at Catholic churches in Londonderry and the surrounding area before discovering that he was a Presbyterian.
Gary McKeone recalled hearing of the murder in a piece for the Independent in 2008:
"On Sunday 28 March 1982, I was finishing an essay on Brian Friel's play, The Freedom Of The City, at home in Derry. It was just after lunch, a bright, brisk day. The play is based on the events of another Sunday – Bloody Sunday – which also took place in Derry in 1972 when 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead by members of the Parachute Regiment. I was a child then but I remember my father saying to a friend as they left morning Mass that there would be a few sore heads by night-time. While I lingered over my essay, word came through that Norman Duddy, a neighbour of ours, had been shot dead coming out of Strand Road Presbyterian Church. He had just got in to his car when two IRA men on a motorcycle drew up and began firing. His two young sons, Mark and David, were in the car at the time.
"Ironically, the Duddy family had recently moved out of our neighbourhood and crossed to the east bank of Derry's River Foyle for security reasons. But their place of worship was on the west bank, the time of service fixed and his commitment to his church strong. Norman Duddy was a policeman.”
McKeone’s comments about the Duddy murder remind us of why the PIRA targeted people at their place of worship. While members of the security forces would often vary routine and travel arrangements to prevent terrorists taking advantage of an established pattern a commitment to a church meant that there was one place the terrorist could be sure they would be at a particular time on a particular day.
The reservations of Prison Officer Michael Cassidy about attending his sister’s wedding illustrate the fact that members of the security forces were all too well aware that people knowing they would be somewhere was a risk which had to be carefully evaluated. One wonders how many weddings and other important events in the life of any family were missed because someone believed that the threat from the terrorist was too great.
Importantly these murders underscore the reality that the judiciary (and their families), the prison service and the police service were not an occupying force in Northern Ireland. They did not, as I noted in a previous post, live in barracks. They were part of their communities. They played an active part in the religious lives of those communities. They were local people who had relatives who married other local people.
And all the while the IRA claimed to be fighting “the Brits” and the “forces of occupation” they used these facts to target people at their most vulnerable and exposed.
For them, as the Chapel Murders illustrate, nothing was beyond limits.
A note on sources
To write this blog I have drawn material from the following sources:
Lost Lives by McKittrick et al
Constabulary Heroes 1826-2009: Incorporating RUC GC/PSNI by Sam Trotter
'The children had terrible nightmares' (BBC NI)
IRA wanted to kill whole Travers family, says HET report (News Letter)
Appointment of Sinn Fein adviser provokes anger (News Letter)
IRA wanted to kill whole Travers family, says HET report (News Letter)
Appointment of Sinn Fein adviser provokes anger (News Letter)
Emotional scenes as ‘Ann’s law’ passed at Stormont (News Letter)
I have sought to be careful but if anyone spots factual errors in the above piece please email me at onthisdayni@gmail.com , message the Facebook page or PM me on Twitter.
I have sought to be careful but if anyone spots factual errors in the above piece please email me at onthisdayni@gmail.com , message the Facebook page or PM me on Twitter.
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