‘Jihad’ in Northern Ireland?

By Tom Deignan

ISSUED in April of 2003, the explosive Stevens Report detailed the first official acknowledgement of collusion between loyalist armed groups and British security forces in Northern Ireland. 

According to a new book, however, loyalist-British collusion has been central to Britain’s response to “the Troubles” for over30 years. 

Author Paul Larkin goes so far as to argue that this amounts to a Holy War – or Jihad – against Catholics, in his book A Very British Jihad: Collusion, Con-spiracy and Cover-up in Northern Ireland (Bey-ond the Pale Publica-tions).

An investigative journalist, Larkin made his first film for BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight program in 1989. The subject was lawyer Pat Finucane’s murder by loyalists operating with the assistance of British intelligence officials.

This set Larkin on the a trail of British agent (and UDA intelligence officer) Brian Nelson. Nelson’s diaries, according to Larkin, reveal that British intelligence was long involved with loyalist armed groups. These groups were equipped with arms from South Africa which were later smuggled into Northern Ireland. British officials looked the other way. 

Larkin agues such unseemly activities were allowed to go on because they could be concealed under the guise of “national security.”

Larkin ended up making many films for the Spotlight series, examining controversial killings and the illicit drug trade in the North, as well as informers and agents, the links between police officers and loyalist gunmen, and RUC cover-ups.

Larkin also explored in-depth the infamous Portadown-based “ratpack” led by so-called “king rat” Billy Wright.

The research for these films provided the basis for A Very British Jihad. 

In the book, Larkin presents a detailed account of what he calls Britain’s “dirty war.” He also outlines the political pressure faced by journalists investigating relationships bet-ween British officials and loyalists. 

For more details about this book visit www.btpale.com