The north/really good looking fellas

Terry Robsons funeral yesterday



1 Like

Had MacSwiney any direct involvement with the north at the time? The murder of his predecessor MacCurtain, and then Smyth and Swanzy, had a huge impact on some towns in my part of the world here that can still be seen 100 years later.

1 Like

Would there not have been detectives at the funeral?

1 Like

Not directly
But Tomas MCs murderer ( man in charge)
Was hunted in Antrim and executed by Cork IRA volunteers from the First Cork Brigade
And they used our man’s own revolver

1 Like

They did indeed, and it led to every Catholic business in Lisburn getting burned to the ground and the Catholic population of Lisburn fleeing.
Smyths murder led to similar scenes in Banbridge and Dromore, and the linen factories there stopped employing Catholics. 100 years later and there is still no decent pub reopened in any of these places, but the demographics are steadily changing back.

2 Likes

Wasn’t the funeral I’m on about
The Ra executed the cunt up in Lisburn or Belfast

Outside Lisburn cathedral it was, fellas called Culhane and Murphy from Cork and a Belfast lad called McCorley.

1 Like

Belfast boy was strictly for getting them
In and out
What I loved was the idea that that cunt got it from Tomas’s own handgun

1 Like

It’s life end of

There’s were pogroms against Roman Catholics well before that cunt got it
Gauntlet laid down
Fuck with us and you’ll get fucked
RCs in the north never had it easy before or up to the recent past
As one who lived there I think I’m qualified to comment on it
God help the poor cunts who fir generations had to tip the cap to them cunts

Like Gaza something had to be done
I mean ppl can’t continuously be under the cosh
And unfortunately civilians are always in tbe middle and suffer most
But you can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs
And Cork city suffered from volunteers action’s also
But had to do something to try and crack the empire

Including Cork volunteers killed in action in the 70s

The original permit for that gun was signed by Swanzy himself and issued to a Cork Brigade member who had applied for it, and who presented himself as a loyalist when doing so.

I think Swanzy’s sister(s) appealed for an end to the reprisals, but to no avail.

2 Likes

Fair dues to the lady
And correct ref handgun

Tenacious first Cork brigade followed a tout to the states and executed him

They put a piece in the local paper to say they were against all the violence that followed his murder. They ended up leaving Lisburn and moving to Dublin.

1 Like

The Irish woman shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide in New York was the ex-wife of an American chef once suspected of involvement in the IRA’s Castlereagh break-in.

The bodies of Denise Morgan (39) and a 33-year-old man, Joed Traveras (33), a man known to the Irishwoman, were found with gunshot wounds in a house in Glendale in the borough of Queen’s on Saturday.

The bodies of Denise Morgan (39) and a 33-year-old man, Joed Traveras (33), a man known to the Irishwoman, were found with gunshot wounds in a house in Glendale in the borough of Queen’s on Saturday.

The discovery was made by police officers responding to an emergency call.

The NYPD said a firearm was recovered in the vicinity of the deceased man. Investigations are ongoing.

Ms Morgan, who was from Tullyallen, Co Louth, has a nine-year-old daughter.

She had previously been married to Larry Zaitschek (55) who was once wanted by police in the North over his alleged role in the Castlereagh break-in.

The couple opened a restaurant, the Boyne Brasserie, on the outskirts of Drogheda when Mr Zaitschek returned to Ireland in 2013 after being cleared of any wrongdoing.

Sunday Life visited the eatery the following year where the man nicknamed ‘Larry the Chef’ said: “I just want to forget about it. I’m happy where I am now, I’ve got a great wife and a baby on the way.”

The restaurant, and its owners, were hugely popular with locals.

One business listing stated: “Boyne Brasserie started by husband and wife team Larry and Denise who have returned home from New York to launch their first culinary adventure.

“Larry has worked as a chef here in Ireland, New York, and Paris. Denise — originally from Tullyallen — has spent the last five years managing in New York. However it was time to come home.”

In 2009, the case against Mr Zaitschek was dropped. The PPS said he would not be able to get a fair trial because the PSNI could not make available all relevant material relating to his case.

He had been sought for extradition from America on charges of aggravated burglary, assault, imprisonment of a police officer, and having information likely to be of use to terrorists.

The New Yorker had moved to Northern Ireland in 1995 to live with his first wife and son Pearse. He started working in the kitchen at Castlereagh three years later, and was on first name terms with many officers.

Detectives had alleged that Mr Zaitschek had helped the IRA break in and steal sensitive files on police and their informers.

Mr Zaitschek said the burglary was the work of rogue police who wanted the IRA blamed so Sinn Fein would be kicked out of the Executive.

“Of course it was the police, probably Special Branch, which was responsible for the break-in. All that stuff about the IRA’s involvement was nonsense,” he said.

The chef surrendered himself to the PSNI in 2011. “I |didn’t say anything at all during the interviews,” he said. “I just sat there and listened while they asked questions. I knew almost immediately that they had nothing on me, that it was a farce because of the nature of the questions being asked.”

Mr Zaitschek had left his job in Northern Ireland before the March 17 2002 break-in and returned to the US. Detectives probing the burglary suspected him of involvement mainly because of his previous friendship with Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, who was later murdered after being unmasked as a Special Branch agent.

Ms Morgan is reported to have moved back to the US in 2018. She was working in The Cottage Bar Restaurant in Forest Hills, New York, at the time of her murder.

Paying tribute to her on social media, her sister Lisa said: “In the blink of an eye our world has broken, and we are absolutely crushed.

“My beautiful sister has been taken from my life by such a heinous cowardly act. We will never get justice for this. We are absolutely heartbroken.

“She was the kindest, most sweetest soul I know.”

Really don’t know why that was relevant enough to be the headline in todays Independent? Her family must be going through enough.

1 Like

Surprised they didn’t mention Sinn Fein in it.

1 Like