And you dare call me a terrorist, while you look down your gun, and I think of all the deeds that you have done. You have plundered many nations, divided many lands, you have terrorised their peoples, you ruled with an iron hand, and you brought this reign of terror to my land. (The Ballad of Joe McDonnell)
The Irish people are a pretty aggressive race ... just now they (Protestants) think we're their army ... we're just as liable to shoot them as we are anybody else ... the people here are luckiest people in the world, because they've got a British government. If it was anywhere else in the world, there'd be an awful lot more dead people and the army would be a lot more harder. - (Corporal Brown, Parachute Regiment, 1971)
As far as I'm concerned Corporal Brown is a disgrace to the British Army uniform ... going round night after night bullying men, women, and children." (Resident of Clonard, about Parachute Regiment Corporal Brown, 1971)
Criminals and Cowards in the Parachute Regiment, 1970s
Former Traditional Unionist Voice candidate John Ross said about Bloody Sunday:
One Para, and I make no apology for saying it, carried out a very successful operation … A good operation, a job well done. They all came out alive.
They did. 14 unarmed civilians did not. Using Ross’s rationale, the OIRA’s bombing of Aldershot Barracks in 1972 was a good operation. A job well done. The OIRA lost no volunteers, killed a Parachute regiment officer who had been mentioned in dispatches (and who happened to be a Padre), with less civilian “collateral damage” than on Bloody Sunday.
Of course, to view the Aldershot bombing that way is historically ridiculous and morally offensive. But Ross went further, and attended a rally supporting mass killer Soldier F. A speaker at the rally called on the British Government to “enact protective legislation" to "safeguard" soldiers and police.” Despite coming from the Shankill Road, where the Parachute Regiment shot dead two Protestant civilians, John Ross went on:
Right from the outset my regiment has been branded murderers, killers, all sorts. We served with pride, we served with dignity, we were disciplined, we did our duty. Yes, we were a robust regiment, and if you wanted the job done we would have done it. But we were just like any other regiment that served in Northern Ireland in Op Banner.
I wonder what John Ross would think of Corporal Brown?
The Belfast Telegraph reported, 6th December 1972, on “30 paratroopers quitting army” – that is, they bought themselves out. The article noted that two Paras had died in the North. The actual figure was eight, though official records note that not all died at the hands of republicans. Soldier F was charged with murder, but many other Paras, of John Ross’s era and beyond, were charged, and convicted of other crimes, ranging from armed robbery to theft. Three Para’s were convicted of receiving stolen goods and fined, on 5th April 1973. We are entitled to ask John Ross how he feels about the convicts in his regiment. There is evidence suggesting that one of those named in this case did a further eight tours of the North, despite his conviction.
Parachute regiment criminality continued into the 1990s. Whilst Lee Clegg was charged and convicted of murder of an unarmed nationalist teenager the conviction was quashed, he and his colleagues had opened fire on the night. The gunfire resulted in the deaths of Karen Reilly and Sean Peake. Some of his comrades in later years became involved in serious drug-dealing. These soldiers, I believe, are from the same battalion involved in the Christy Walsh case. The Third Battalion of the Parachute regiment around this time were widely condemned for attacks on civilians in Coalisland, which one officer being suspended, and questions being asked in parliament.
The Belfast Telegraph reported, 6th December 1972, on “30 paratroopers quitting army” – that is, they bought themselves out. The article noted that two Paras had died in the North. The actual figure was eight, though official records note that not all died at the hands of republicans. Soldier F was charged with murder, but many other Paras, of John Ross’s era and beyond, were charged, and convicted of other crimes, ranging from armed robbery to theft. Three Para’s were convicted of receiving stolen goods and fined, on 5th April 1973. We are entitled to ask John Ross how he feels about the convicts in his regiment. There is evidence suggesting that one of those named in this case did a further eight tours of the North, despite his conviction.
Parachute regiment criminality continued into the 1990s. Whilst Lee Clegg was charged and convicted of murder of an unarmed nationalist teenager the conviction was quashed, he and his colleagues had opened fire on the night. The gunfire resulted in the deaths of Karen Reilly and Sean Peake. Some of his comrades in later years became involved in serious drug-dealing. These soldiers, I believe, are from the same battalion involved in the Christy Walsh case. The Third Battalion of the Parachute regiment around this time were widely condemned for attacks on civilians in Coalisland, which one officer being suspended, and questions being asked in parliament.
All of this is a matter of public record.
Rioting, Collusion, and Thuggery in the RUC Reserve
Unfortunately not readily available to the public is Brian Nelson’s prison journal. In it, Nelson describes how he is introduced to an RUC Reserve officer named Paul Ross (I have no idea if he’s a relative of John Ross: Ross is a common surname) in the mid-1980s, who had UVF connections through marriage, and who was to act as a conduit for information being passed from other RUC members to the UDA. Nelson recounts how he spent an evening drinking with Paul Ross and others until, some hours later, Ross pinned Nelson’s wife against a wall by the throat in a sudden and unprovoked attack. Nelson jostled with Ross, and phoned the RUC who arrived and, as Nelson put it, made clear they’d be taking no further action against one of their own.
A convicted loyalist paramilitary contact didn’t like Paul Ross, calling him a “snarly peeler.” The same loyalist paramilitary source said that Paul married the sister of a very prominent UVF member on the Shankill. I couldn’t independently verify this, but it fits with Nelson’s account.
The Belfast Telegraph reported, on 21st July 2000, that:
The article continued:
Rioting, Collusion, and Thuggery in the RUC Reserve
Unfortunately not readily available to the public is Brian Nelson’s prison journal. In it, Nelson describes how he is introduced to an RUC Reserve officer named Paul Ross (I have no idea if he’s a relative of John Ross: Ross is a common surname) in the mid-1980s, who had UVF connections through marriage, and who was to act as a conduit for information being passed from other RUC members to the UDA. Nelson recounts how he spent an evening drinking with Paul Ross and others until, some hours later, Ross pinned Nelson’s wife against a wall by the throat in a sudden and unprovoked attack. Nelson jostled with Ross, and phoned the RUC who arrived and, as Nelson put it, made clear they’d be taking no further action against one of their own.
A convicted loyalist paramilitary contact didn’t like Paul Ross, calling him a “snarly peeler.” The same loyalist paramilitary source said that Paul married the sister of a very prominent UVF member on the Shankill. I couldn’t independently verify this, but it fits with Nelson’s account.
The Belfast Telegraph reported, on 21st July 2000, that:
An ex-RUC officer has been ordered to pay £250 compensation to a woman whose arm he bit during a late-night entertainment cruise.
Paul Ross, aged 42, from Old Forge Park, Newtownards, denied assaulting the woman and two men after alleged sectarian remarks were made during the cruise on the Stena HSS. The incident happened a year ago when Ross was a full-time police reservist.
Resident Magistrate John Clery said he had listened to confusing accounts of what happened and that was inevitable because of the amount of drink that was taken. He said he was satisfied that retribution was afflicted on Ross and that he was seriously assaulted. But I am also satisfied he initiated the fracas and that he lunged at Mrs Brennan with his mouth … he is fortunate not to be facing a more serious charge in relation to that assault.
It is not clear from the article is the officer convicted of this offence was sacked from his position in the RUC.
What is abundantly clear is the rampant criminality, petty and otherwise, endemic within the British Army during the Troubles. I believe that the Parachute Regiment were only the most outrageously criminal of the regiments deployed during Operation Banner. John Ross should be free to mourn his regiment’s dead – the Paras paid a heavy, heavy price - at least 52 were killed by the IRA, and many more than that grievously injured. But to attempt to airbrush out the murders, torture, thieving and thuggery of the Paras comes across as a calculated insult to nationalists across Ireland. Perhaps it’s intended that way.
⏩ Brandon Sullivan is a middle aged, middle management, centre-left Belfast man. Would prefer people focused on the actual bad guys.
