INTERNMENT MORNING. 9^th August 1971.

The Republican movement had got intelligence in August 1971, indeed even the dogs on the streets were barking that there was every possibility that internment, arrest and imprisonment with out charge or trial, would be introduced. On the morning of 7^th August the tensions in Belfast had greatly risen by the shooting of a workman by the British Army at Springfield Road Barracks. The driver, 28 year old Harry Thornton and his workmate were driving past the barracks when their work van back fired. Shots were fired at the van by a British soldier who had ran from the barracks and opened fire and Harry was shot through the throat. His companion was taken into the barracks and within hours the horrific tragedy was accepted and he was released. But, on his release he was swathed in bandages having obviously been badly assaulted in Springfield Road Barracks, tremendous rioting broke out in disgust at both the criminal murder of Harry Thornton and the torture of his workmate.

At 1am, 9^th August, 42 hours after the murder of Harry Thornton a fierce gun battle was taking place between the IRA and the British Army at Ardoyne. Malcolm Hatton a 19 year old member of the Green Howards was shot dead by gunfire coming from a flat roof of shops at the top of Brompton Park. The gun battle ceased shortly after and although all volunteers throughout the six counties were told not to stay over night in their own homes due to the internment scare, the Ardoyne Company had particular reason not to be in their homes that night after the shooting of trooper Hatton. Little did they know that that was the exact night which internment was to be introduced.

There can be no doubt that this is what saved Martin from being captured in the Interment roundup, this and an uncanny incident later in the morning. About 3 am Martin had went along to the home of a friend, John Fox, fondly known locally as “Bushy Tail” of Etna Drive, who handed him a blanket and told him to put his head down on the settee and have a kip. Exhausted he lay down pulled the blanket over his head and fell into a deep sleep. He awoke to the sound of whistles blowing, bin lids rattling and people screaming on the streets, the front and back door of the house were lying wide open and John was no where to be seen, he rushed out into the street to hear people screaming, “It’s Internment.. It’s Internment.”

Some time later Martin learned what had happened in the house whilst he slept, "As I slept the Brits had came to the house , back and front and John Fox was standing there , they asked him was he John. J. Fox , he told them he was and they informed him he was arrested under the Internment Act, as they made to leave by the back door with their prisoner, one of them spotted the figure with the blanket over it sleeping on the settee and made a move to pull back the blanket. John immediately blurted, “Aye Jezz, don’t wake her up, that’s the wife she will tear the eyes out off you if she sees you taking me out of the house”, they left with their prisoner leaving the doors open behind them". Martin had slept through it all as did another Volunteer who was a sleep in the loft.

On the streets all hell broke loose, every man woman and child were out on the streets, resistance was terrific, it was a total war scene, but unorganised. One incident that really brought the flames of hell into the scenario was the shooting dead by the British Army of protestant woman, Mrs Sarah Worthington, a mother of nine children, of Velsheda Park. Velsheda and Farrington Gardens at that time had many protestant people living in them and the result of the gun battles made them feel unsafe, but sadly as they fled they set fire to their houses thereby denying any Catholic families who were being put out of their homes by loyalists on the other side of Alliance Avenue and other places to move into the vacated homes. The hundreds of Catholic families who were being burned out of their homes in other area’s and were pouring into Ardoyne for safety, these families with their bits of furniture that they carried were housed in Holy Cross Boys School . Martin Being Officer in Command of the Local Irish Republican Army realised that even the volunteers were running around “like headless chickens”, eventually they were able to create a line around the area and the British had retreated to the adjoining loyalists districts and continued sniping into the area. Paddy McAdorey, Martin’s Provisional IRA adjutant asked Martin to allow the Official IRA members in the area to join in the resistance, but Martin stubbornly refused on the grounds that he would give them no authority in the area. Paddy and he had a heated argument, a thing Martin was to regret the rest of his life for that was the last time he saw ‘Paddy Mac’ alive. Paddy had went to Jamaica Street and was exchanging sniping fire with the British and Loyalists, Martin was at Etna Drive, when along came two members of the Official IRA carrying Thompson Sub Machine guns who obviously had been ‘operating’. One of them was covered in blood and told Martin, “Paddy Mac has been shot in Jamaica Street”. The issue about the Officials was instantly dropped Martin found himself asking a strange question, “was he shot in the leg, arm where”?. He later explained to me the reason for that, Paddy Mac was a bull of a man and Martin felt if the Brits were going to kill Paddy the bullet would have to hit him in the head, elsewhere it would have no effect on him. The messenger lifted his hand and pointed his finger to the centre of his forehead and said , “He was shot through the head, he is dead.” Martin had got his answer, and so all three left to transport the body to Holy Cross Boys School and laid it out on a table and covered it with the Tricolour and left four Members of Na Fianna Eireann (Boys IRA) to guard the body, it was virtually a laying out in state. Thousands of Ardoyne people poured through the doors to pay their last respects to a man who was seen as probably the greatest guerrilla fighter in modern Ireland. Anyone who knew Paddy Mac, especially Martin, would tell you how heroic he had been on ‘operations’, in fact he had been ‘on the run’ for over six months and never left Ardoyne, he was right under their noses the whole time and operating against them. Paddy had been forced to go on the run following allegations that he was involved in the 26^th of February killing at Alliance Crescent of Cecil Patterson a well known Special Branch man and Robert Buckley, a special trained RUC man. The two had been spotted from the Ardoyne side of Alliance, it is said they were freely moving among UVF gun men who were firing at Ardoyne. There had been a fierce gun battle taking place that night, British troops and Loyalist gunmen were firing into Ardoyne it was during this that an Ardoyne republican spotted D.I. Patterson and waited for a clear shot, and this came as Patterson and two RUC men moved to cross a street , a burst of gunfire rang out and Patterson and another RUC man was hit, which turned who it was later learned was Con. Buckley. Cecil Patterson was a well known Special Branch man and I must say he was particularly despised by republicans. I happened to be In Jamaica Street that night and I recall the whisper spreading around within minutes of the burst of gunfire that Patterson had been shot, so I had little doubt he who fired those shots knew actually who the target was. This shooting incident actually led to a revolt within the RUC for at that point they were still unarmed following their sectarian behaviour in August 1969. Within one hour Chief Constable Shillington threatened to withdraw all RUC members. They demanded to have their guns returned, the revolt was short lived , their guns were quickly returned.

I must point here that earlier on the same day at the Belfast Courts, Patterson and his cohots had a attacked in the most brutal fashion some republican women who were protesting outside the court, and a child could see that he went far to far and obviously he would be targeted, perhaps that is why a cheer went up the night that he was shot.

It was Martin who broke the sad news to Paddy’s mother and his wife Rose, Paddy and Rose had just recently married. Meanwhile a fierce argument broke out about the body of Paddy McAdorey, the so called ‘authorities’ demanded to have the body for an autopsy ‘or they would send the whole of the British Army in to get it ’ this message they got to a Priest at Holy Cross Chapel and in turn he relayed it to Martin, with a sincere request that Martin should go along with it and that the ‘authorities’ had promised that the body would be returned. Martin realising that Ardoyne was but a small Catholic enclave, unlike the Falls Road and couldn’t possibly sustain resistance against the overwhelming force of British that would be sent in, so conceded. True to their word the body was returned after a post mortem, the family and the community were allowed to grieve their loss.

But a new problem arose, from recent experiences, the funerals of Barney Watt and James Saunders, the family and the Republican Movement knew full well that the British, the Loyalists and the Orange RUC would never allow a full military funeral to be given to this almost idolised Irish Republican Soldier. The cortege would have to pass through loyalist area’s and would come under attack the mourners would be massively out numbered so a plan was hatched to get the body to the large Catholic Falls Road area.

On the day of the funeral a fantastic plan kicked into motion all carried out under the eyes of the British Army sentinels in their high placed lookout post at Flax Street Mill. Huge crowds of mourners gathered around the home of Paddy awaiting the funeral but little did they know that the body had been quietly moved in the middle of the night to a different house at the rear of which a Barney Hughes Bakery delivery van parked. The long drawers of the van had been taken out and the coffin of Paddy had been carefully put inside. Martin was intent that his brave comrade was going to get the respectful send off that he deserved. The van drove off past the mourners, past the military post in the direction of the Falls Road and the message was whispered through the gathered mourners to make their way to the Falls Road for the funeral.

The van drove to 30 McDonnell Street the home of Mrs Dutton, Martin’s then mother in law where an undertaker’s hearse was already waiting and the stands for the coffin were laid on the road . The coffin was laid on the stands and suddenly six fully uniformed IRA Volunteers stepped out and fired a volley of shots over the coffin as a salute to the fallen comrade. The Falls Road was lined five deep with people to salute the body of Paddy McAdorey on its way to Milltown Cemetery.

The regiment that killed Paddy was the Green Howards and so his comrades, men and women, went with a vengeance to avenge his killing, by the time they had finished their tour of duty in Ardoyne the Regiment became known as the Green Cowards. They had suffered six soldiers killed and scores wounded, there was talk of some soldiers refusing to leave the barracks to patrol the area, of mental break downs and court-martials and red faced officers. The officer commanding the Green Howards appeared on Television and without naming Martin insinuated that he was responsible for all the deaths of the Green Howards, Martin later almost apologetically to other volunteers , explaining that surely it would take more than one man to do all that, all he would concede was that “the Green Howards paid dearly for their killing of Paddy McAdorey”.