Collusion

The long awaited report from Nuala O'Loan's office has finally been released. There is ample evidence that the Royal Ulster Constabulary colluded with thugs from the Ulster Volunteer Force to protect murderers from justice. What the Catholics in the north of Ireland knew has been shown to be a fact.

Sharon McKenna stopped by the home of a friend, who happened to be an old pensioner of the Protestant faith. Her friend had just been released from hospital, and she thought she might fix a meal, a very ordinary act of kindness that anyone might do for a neighbor. She was shot dead by the UVF for her trouble, and the RUC was more concerned with hiding the identity of her murderer. Turns out the killer was also an informer, and what's another Catholic dead anyway?

Special Branch went so far as to increase the murderer's stipend for informing, and when he did try to confess to the McKenna killing, he was given a few hundred pounds to spend on a holiday...abroad.

The same informer murdered Eamon Fox and Gary Convie, killed while working a building site in a loyalist area. After a witness reported that the killer was sporting a goatee, the UVF killer, already in police custody, took advantage of a razor and a bit of lather to change his appearance, all with the knowledge of the RUC.

During the course of Ms. O'Loan's investigation, a number of serving officers, including detective chief superintendents and constables, refused to cooperate with her. No answers to her questions, evasive answers, or answers made up out of thin air were provided by men who are today serving in the revamped Police Service of Northern Ireland.

This past weekend, Gerry Adams has been heavily lobbying the members of Sinn Fein to accept the PSNI, and this latest report of collusion plays right into his hands. For all these years, Sinn Fein refused to recognize the police, refused to sit on the police boards, refused to allow its members to become police officers, and the Catholics suffered.

It's truly historic, to accept the PSNI. Difficult for them to shut the door on you when you're already in the room.

As of now, it is being said that those serving police officers who refused to cooperate with the Ombudsman's inquiries face no disciplinary action. Think they'll remain swept under the rug if Sinn Fein is sitting on the Police Board?