I wish we’d killed more Brits, Provo tells Nolan
Police probe radio comments by IRA man interviewed over documentary
POLICE are to review an episode of BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show after a former IRA man said that he wished they had killed more British soldiers.
A man calling himself ‘Eamonn’ contacted the show from Derry to explain why he joined the IRA in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday.
Asked by host Stephen Nolan if he wished they had killed more people, Eamonn answered: “Correct, and we couldn’t do enough — killing and getting rid of the British Establishment out of my country.”
He declined to say if he had killed anybody himself.
After yesterday’s broadcast the PSNI said it was “aware of comments made on a radio programme this morning and will review the contents to establish if any offences have been disclosed or committed”.
TUV leader Jim Allister said that police must “bring him to justice”.
The discussion came after veteran journalist Peter Taylor said in a BBC documentary he would probably have joined the IRA if he had been a teenager in Derry on Bloody Sunday.
Ann Travers, whose sister Mary Travers was murdered by the IRA, was among those to condemn Mr Taylor’s comments.
“So wrong. There was never any justification for violence.
There is only one Irish army and the IRA aren’t it.
“Many didn’t join the IRA and most rejected Sinn Fein until the Good Friday Agreement,” Ms Travers wrote on Twitter.
“Thanks Peter for unintentionally justifying the attempted murder of my parents and murder of my sister.”
The sister of murdered Ulster Unionist politician and barrister Edgar Graham said that she “never contemplated taking revenge on those who murdered my brother”.
UUP MLA Doug Beattie said that “everybody has a choice and is responsible for their own actions”.
Eamonn told the Nolan Show
❝ Iwas14 on Bloody Sunday when I watched my fellow Derry people getting murdered and on May 1, 1974, I joined the Provos
that he was living proof of Mr Taylor’s comments.
“I was 14 on Bloody Sunday when I watched my fellow Derry people getting murdered and on May 1, 1974, when I was 16, I joined the Provisional IRA,” he said.
“Everything Peter Taylor said happened to me. I was at the march (on Bloody Sunday), I saw the baton charge coming at us and I ran.
“I ran into the back of the Rossville flats and one person on my right-hand side was shot and one person on my left-hand side was shot.
“I don’t know if he died or what happened, but both were shot.
“That made a big, big impression on me and I know exactly where Peter Taylor was coming from.”
Eamonn said that he started carrying out acts on behalf of the IRA immediately after joining, and hijacked a car.
Mr Nolan said that Eamonn had gone out to “maim and destroy”. He said that Eamonn had never been convicted of IRA membership.
Mr Nolan added that Eamonn wishing the IRA had killed more people was “disgusting”.
Eamonn replied: “What’s disgusting is what I’ve seen on Bloody Sunday; what was imprinted on a 14-year-old child is disgusting.”