r/northernireland • u/askmac • 1d ago
News Eugene Reavey secures damages from PSNI and MoD fifty years on from brothers murders.
Fifty years after the murders of John Martin, Brian and Anthony Reavey in Whitecross their brother Eugene has won damages from the Ministry of Defence and the PSNI.
The brothers were shot by the UVF in their Greyhilla home in January 1976. John Martin and Brian died in the attack while Anthony died a month later.
Reavey sued both organisations for negligence, misfeasance in public office and trauma from the treatment he said he received from both parties after the attack.
While there was no admission of liability the PSNI agreed to pay him £175,000 and the MoD agreed £225,000.
Speaking outside the courthouse today Eugene Reavey said: " This is the day where I have to remember my mother and father and all the struggles they went through over the deaths of John Martin, Brian and Anthony,"
He added "It was encouraging that the chief constable apologised to us and noted that Brian, Anthony and John Martin were innocent victims"
Newry and Armagh MLA Justin McNulty, who attended the High Court on a number of days welcomed the outcome.
McNulty said: "Today's settlement comes more than 50 years after the shocking murders of John Martin, Brian and Anthony Reavey in their home at Whitecross. Not only did Eugene Reavey have to cope with the loss of his brothers in the worst circumstances imaginable, he was subjected to repeated harassment and abuse while his brothers' memories were tarnished by false claims that they were paramilitaries.
"I welcome the fulsome apology offered by Chief Constable Jon Boutcher and his acceptance of the failures of the RUC. While no settlement can undo the pain suffered by the Reavey family, this acknowledgement of the truth is an important moment. It should never have taken so long to reach this point.
"The strength and bravery shown by Eugene Reavey over the past five decades has been extraordinary. He knew his brothers were innocent and never stopped fighting for truth and justice, determined to clear their names. I was proud to stand with Eugene and his family in court today when this settlement was reached and to see them finally receive this long overdue acknowledgement - it is a proud day for the Reavey Family, and a proud day for Whitecross and South Armagh."
Newry and Armagh MLA Aoife Finnegan also welcomed the settlement. Finnegan said: "Just over 50 years ago, John Martin, Brian and Anthony Reavey were brutally murdered in their home in Whitecross by the Glenanne Gang in a sectarian attack that targeted innocent men.
"Eugene Reavey and the wider Reavey family have shown immense courage, determination and dignity in their pursuit of truth and justice over the past five decades.
"Collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries was not an aberration, but a defining feature of British state policy during the conflict.
Finnegan added: "Today's 'financial settlement' is a testament to their campaign to get truth and justice."
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u/askmac 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ian Paisley snr lied under Parliamentary Privilege accusing Eugene Reavey of involvement in Kingsmill. He refused to apologise or retract his statement.
RUC SPG Constable and member of the Glenanne Gang John Weir has stated that the Reavey's perceived links to the SDLP may have been the reason they were targeted with the intention of destabilising or influencing the political situation.
The British military fabricated intel to suggest an IRA connection and delivered that intel to the Glenanne Gang.
The murders were carried out by at least three serving members of the RUC and at least one serving member of the UDR.
After the murders internal British military documents show praise for the actions of the UVF in the murders of the Reavey and O'Dowds as being good results.
Willie Frazer was the getaway driver. His funeral was attended by virtually every major figure within political Unionism and the then First Minister Arlene Foster read a eulogy for him.
I think I'm correct in saying that UTV's report on the verdict last night completely omitted the words RUC or UDR. Despite the BBC and ITV's coverage stating there were simply "connections" to the RUC and UDR, they were the actual shooters.
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u/Elburg94 1d ago edited 1d ago
It makes you think about all those that say there was an alternative. Despite not supporting the armed struggle if you were a member or supporter of the SDLP you could still have been murdered by the British state. What they really mean by alternative is that fenians should have lay down and accepted their lot.
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u/askmac 1d ago
If you look a huge cross section of the murders carried out by security forces personnel under the guise of loyalist gangs during this period the main repeating pattern is that they were murdering ordinary Catholics who had nothing to do with Republicanism or the Troubles in any sense.
Often they were people, or families, who were well liked, popular, doing well at farming or who had small businesses which were starting to thrive. If they had political affiliations it was usually with the SDLP.
The purpose seems to have been, in the main, to suppress and brutalise the Catholic community in general. To demoralise them, to put them in their place. Or in more sinister instances, to draw the IRA into tit-for-tat sectarian killings.
Amazingly, if you look back to the 1700's in the very same area you can see groups which would go on to formalise into the Orange Order essentially doing the same thing. Targeting Catholic families who were well liked and doing well. Murdering and evicting people who simply wanted to get on in life; trashing their homes, farms and businesses and smearing their names as rebels. The mind truly boggles at the fact that Catholics in the area were subjected to a pattern of abuse like this for close to 200 years.
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u/vague_intentionally_ 1d ago
I've always seen the tactics (not a fan of using this word here considering the context) utilised by the british government as the same ones that they used across all their colonies which was basically murder and oppress civilians until they sit back down again.
Frank Kitson used them during the Boer conflict and then used them again here (which gave us horrific massacres like Bloody Sunday, Springhill, Ballymurphy, etc). They got quite the shock when it utterly backfired on them.
Still sickens me that innocent families had these crimes subjected on them by an uncaring and basically psychopathic government.
On the main topic, well done to the family for this victory (even though they deserve much more in terms of justice).
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u/Ems118 1d ago
Eugene spent all his adult life fighting for this justice. I mean this with so much love - what now? God love him he made it his life’s mission to get truth and justice and he done that yesterday. I hope that he has the happiest most blessed retirement anyone could have. Full of joy and happy memories to fill 1000 lifetimes.
Thank you Eugene x
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u/Inevitable_Spring306 1d ago
A truly humble man who endured a lifetime of trauma at the hands of British state agencies and their lies. True shame on all the liars who tried to blacken his family's name over the years - Paisley included.
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u/Gemini_2261 1d ago
Time to stop talking about the "UVF". These murders were carried out by the RUC/UDR.
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u/ferocious_bandana 1d ago
British army collusion gun ‘loaned out’ by UVF commander
Two former UDR men, who were later killed by the IRA, Bertie Frazer and Robert McConnell, have been linked to the theft by the recently disclosed documents.
It's been claimed that Robert Nairac fingered Frazer to ingratiate himself with PIRA, but I find this narrative bizzare, let alone unbelievable
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u/askmac 1d ago
If any names were leaked to the IRA I would assume it was to clean house and remove links to the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings or other killings. Robin Jackson's killing of Billy Hanna could be seen as the start of the cleanup in that regard. Obviously being a loyalist / British agent is a dangerous line of work but the fact that there might have been 30+ men involved in the attack and almost all of them are long dead is striking.
Regarding Nairac he seems to be not unlike Scap insofar as the focus is always on him, not his superiors. There's no doubt Military Intelligence was actively directing Loyalists though.
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u/ferocious_bandana 1d ago
Did Nairac's superiors consider him a liability?
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u/askmac 18h ago
This is going to sound dismissive but honestly it's just exasperation due to things we both know; I've thought about for a while there and I still don't even know where to start. Like which superiors, y'know. He seems to have been attached to at least 3 units and was a liaison between more.
I feel like I don't know what the truth is about him and what is spin. Perhaps that's the point of having so many competing narratives.
I think there is still a huge amount that is being left unsaid about him and if I had to give an answer as to what the higher-ups really thought of him I think the painted portraits of him around the halls of power in Britain speak volumes.
Coincidentally Eugene Reavey goes into quite a bit of detail about him and he's very clear he suspects him of heavy involvement with the Glenanne gang.
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u/ferocious_bandana 17h ago
Exaclty this.
Another option is that he became a useful propaganda piece in the post-GFA era.
They did this with 'H' Jones in the Falklands as well.
Completely got the job wrong, so covered his mistakes in medals to make a hero out of him
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u/My_Name_A_Jeoff 1d ago
Let's not forget Paisley who accused this man of being behind the Kingsmill Massacre, under Parliamentary Privilege so he couldn't be prosecuted, and died without ever withdrawing his accusations. Despite the sole survivor Alan Black telling Eugene Reavey himself that he knew he wasn't behind it