Call for CCTV to protect soldier memorials

THERE have been calls for CCTV to be installed to protect memorials to three Scottish soldiers murdered by the IRA in Belfast 47 years ago.

Dougald McCaughey (23) was killed along with brothers John and Joseph McCaig, 17 and 18 respectively, in March 1971.

They had been off duty at a bar in Belfast city centre when they were befriended by IRA men who lured them into a car promising to take them to meet girls at a party.

Instead they brought them to White Brae off the Ligoniel Road and shot them dead.

Memorials to the three soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Royal

Disgusted: David McCaughey

Highland Fusiliers at White Brae and at Ballysillan in north Belfast have been repeatedly targeted by vandals and thieves.

They have been attacked 27 times since they were installed in 2010 after funding from the Oldpark/Cavehill branch of the Royal British Legion.

The White Brae memorial is the most frequently targeted.

In the most recent incident last weekend, a stone flower pot next to the monument was removed.

Paint has been poured over the memorial at Ballysillan and IRA slogans have been daubed on it and poppies destroyed.

David McCaughey, cousin of Dougald, said the repeated attacks make him “sick to his stomach”.

“These are memorials to three innocent men, they were not bad people, yet their memory is the most disrespected by local gangs,” he said.

Kris McGurk, director of the Three Scottish Soldiers Campaign for Justice group, said he will be writing to Belfast City Council on behalf of the families to request CCTV be installed.

“If these people cannot leave the memorials alone and let our boys peacefully be remembered, we are left with no other option but to request the assistance of Belfast City Council in adding some prevention measures in the area,” he said.

Mr McGurk said the families had hoped the memorials would be left alone.

“To desecrate a memorial is a terrible shame,” he added.

“Even in death, their memory is being caught up in the crossfire of these twisted people, the constant and deliberate disrespect they are shown must stop.”