(Plastic bullets....) "are used in accordance with the principle of the minimum and reasonable amount of force necessary for the protection of life and property, the preservation of the peace and the prevention of crime." Superintendent Keatley for the Chief Constable 11.7.1996 "Soon the air was filled with the fumes of burning petrol and the machine-gun like sound of plastic bullet guns being fired almost incessantly." Londonderry Sentinel 17 July 1996On the Friday before the Drumcree stand-off began six civil liberties/human rights groups faxed the Chief Constable calling on him to:
"immediately and permanently withdraw plastic bullets from use."The six groups, the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets, Committee on the Administration of Justice, British Irish Rights Watch, Liberty, Pat Finucane Centre and the Irish Council on Civil Liberties argued that:
"their use is wrong and indeed counter productive whether against residents of the Lower Ormeau Road and the Bogside or against Orange Order marchers in Portadown or on the Upper Ormeau Road."The reply is quoted at the top of this page.
Within 24 hours of the Drumcree situation developing, the RUC opened fire with a small number of plastic bullets against loyalist demonstrators in Tullyally where two vehicles had been set on fire. David Nicholl, a local Ulster Democratic Party representative claimed that :
"the police fired a baton round (plastic bullet) before a stone was fired, and they clubbed a man out looking for his son."
One round went through the window of a house narrowly missing a five year old girl inside according to local people. Rioting continued. On the Tuesday night two plastic bullets were fired at protesting loyalists in Newbuildings. Meanwhile a young man with severe learning difficulties was "seriously injured" by a plastic bullet in Drumcree. The RUC was later to admit that
"662 plastic bullets were fired in Drumcree related (loyalist) disturbances throughout the North."Human rights groups have consistently made clear that the use of plastic bullets is wrong in any circumstances and only serves to heighten tension. What was to follow over the next days however sent a shock wave throughout the North.
It should first be put in context:
From Sunday 7 July until Thursday 11 July the North of Ireland was subjected to widespread violence and intimidation. The port, international airport, many towns and villages and most key roads were blockaded. Public transport was suspended. Properties both private and commercial were petrol bombed and many families were driven from their homes. Thousands of Orangemen were allowed to congregate at Drumcree and, despite a massive RUC/British Army presence, earth moving machinery was brought onto the scene with which to breach security force lines. During these four and a half days 662 plastic bullets were fired.
Following the RUC decision to force the Orange parade through the largely Catholic Garvaghy Road, confrontation was inevitable with young nationalists. On the Thursday night rioting spread throughout the North.
Property was again attacked and petrol bombed. Vehicles were hijacked and burnt as barricades. The disturbances were almost exclusively restricted to working class nationalist areas. During this period, from 11 July until 6 am on Sunday 14 July the RUC fired 5,340 plastic bullets.
In Derry the first confrontations between young people and the RUC were centred
around three particular incidents.
Return To Start of Chapter
This then was the scene when the RUC moved in at first from Bennet Street on the Bishop Street side and then moving up the middle of Bishop Street and taking up position behind the security fence inside the Fountain. As they did so they fired volleys of plastic bullets at those on the Bishop Street side including at people emerging from nearby pubs. Witnesses have stated that a small group of "very young lads" were involved in the stoning of the RUC at this time.
Sometime shortly after 12.30 am 21 year old Patrick Friel left a local pub on Bishop Street with a friend. They had chosen to avoid the city centre earlier in the evening. His friend continues,
"We just wanted to get home. We were in Long Tower Court when Patrick was hit. He fell. I lifted him and his head was lying open. There was a lot of blood".
Patrick was subsequently driven in a private car to Altnagelvin. He was later transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast after his condition became critical. Patrick is now convalescing at home. The plastic bullet that was fired at his head was shot from just over 30 metres by an RUC man standing at the corner of Bennet Street. He remains on duty.
Several other people were injured in this incident though none as serious as
Patrick Friel. Twenty three years ago, on 22 May 1973, Patrick's uncle
Thomas Friel, also 21 years of age, was killed by a rubber bullet only several
hundred yards away.
Return To Start of Chapter
On the night of the 11 July the first confrontations in the city centre occurred because the RUC drove through groups of young people emerging from pubs. No property had been attacked. No petrol bombs had been thrown. One taxi driver told us that he had asked to be let through a cordon of RUC jeeps at the top of Shipquay Street in order to pick up a fare at approximately 1 am. He continues,
"I asked why they were blocking the road if there was no trouble. The officer replied `there will be in about ten minutes time' and laughed."The night-clubs had not emptied by this time. They were soon to do so into a street cordoned off at the top for no apparent reason.
As people came out onto the bottom of Shipquay Street a landrover drove past. Stones were thrown at it and within minutes a riot squad was advancing down Shipquay Street. Young people coming out of Henry Js, a disco on Castle Street found themselves corralled in Castle Street with RUC blocking both ends of the street. There a similar situation had developed with RUC vehicles passing through just as people emerged from clubs and pubs. Soon riot clad RUC men were on top of Castle Gate on the city walls firing down plastic bullets at crowds on Waterloo Street. Trouble spread to the top of Waterloo Street where RUC men again took up position on top of the walls and fired down at a crowd throwing bottles and stones. This went on for some time before the first petrol bombs were thrown. One witness overlooking Castle Gate counted 45 plastic bullets being fired between 1 am and 1.45. Several petrol bombs had been thrown by this stage. Further up in Fahan Street a resident witnessed at least 36 people being hit by plastic bullets in that immediate area.
Some of the most serious incidents occurred at the bottom of Shipquay Street.
As mentioned above, following the ominous comments made to a taxi driver, a landrover was driven through a crowd emerging from discos and pubs at the bottom of the street. Stones were thrown and riot clad RUC men soon appeared at the top of Shipquay Street and moved down the street. Countless witnesses including barmen and bouncers and the parents of one young plastic bullet victim spoke of
"RUC men hitting people with batons, saw people bleeding, saw young man outside Wheelers (fast food outlet) falling after a flash."
(The flash refers to plastic bullets being fired.) One witness said that as the
"RUC passed young fella lying on ground, they kicked him. Saw young man (approx. 17 years old) coughing up blood, he collapsed on ground."
Many witnesses speak of a `turkey shoot' across the bottom of Shipquay Street with patrons who had been told to leave Squires night-club by the back door being forced to run a gauntlet of plastic bullet fire aimed at anyone who tried to cross the street. The vast majority had no choice since this was their only way home. This led to an extremely high level of injuries with injured people trapped and treated in local clubs and fast food outlets.
It was during this "freefire episode" that 17 year old Kevin Mc Cafferty was struck by plastic bullets at the corner of Shipquay Street and Union Hall Place. Kevin was first hit in the body but as he fell was again struck in the head. He was carried along Union Hall Place to the entrance of the Tower Museum.
A witness continues,
"I saw a fella lying in Union Hall Place, in front of Museum surrounded by crowds who had hands up in air urging RUC to hold their fire, they kept on firing. The man was unconscious and appeared to be hit in face. Some girl was getting hit in the ribs, standing at gate of Tower Museum, lifted into air, fired from corner of Shipquay Street."Another witness told us how,
"One girl who had first aid tried to bring him round. Panic. Crowd tried to lift him. Friend and I went round corner into Shipquay Street, both had hands in the air, telling them not to fire. Heard one more shot, bent down so I wouldn't be hit. RUC man with moustache, stout man, shouted `Fuck off'."Another witness spoke of a man lying on the ground who had been hit by a plastic bullet. As some of the members of the public sought to help the injured man and drag him to safety, the RUC officers fired plastic bullets at the people trying to help the injured man.
Kevin was eventually taken to hospital and later transferred to the Royal Victoria in Belfast where his condition was described as "critically ill but stable." He is now recovering but doubts remain over whether the eyesight in his left eye can be saved.
Having fired at the people giving first aid to Kevin McCafferty the RUC continued to let loose volley after volley of plastic bullets until the crowd had been driven back to the entrance of William Street where witnesses spoke of "people dropping like flies." The British Army were now on the streets. According to Superintendent Joseph Mc Keever of the RUC,
"We were subjected to a vicious onslaught and sustained volleys of petrol bombs and missiles. This is the worst rioting ever seen in the city. I believe the initial attack on police near the city centre was a carefully orchestrated ploy that was designed to lure police officers into a death trap".Superintendent Mc Keever recently took over as the most senior RUC officer in the city. He is probably aware of Goebbels maxim that the bigger the lie the more likely it is to be believed. There was "a carefully orchestrated ploy" but it was clearly intended to lure young people into a shooting gallery for Divisional Mobile Support Units who sat waiting in the Diamond. Superintendent Mc Keever spoke of 900 petrol bombs thrown that night and, in a quote quickly taken up by the media, referred to "the worst night of rioting ever seen in this city." The problem was that when the media descended on Derry the next day there was little evidence of the 900 petrol bombs either in damage to buildings or to RUC men.(see below) Only one single statistic pointed to the actual events that had unfolded. Two young men were critically injured, Patrick Friel and Kevin Mc Cafferty, and over one hundred others had been treated in Altnagelvin and Letterkenny Hospitals and in various houses in the Bogside. (See below)
The pattern was to repeat itself throughout the weekend.
On the Friday night a witness told us how an RUC officer on the Strand had :
"called his sergeants together and. ...shouted for `plastic bullet gunners' to load up... Another said `anything that moves, hit it'".A number of people from a pub on the Strand Road tried to escape the rioting by exiting out a side door and immediately walked into a hail of plastic bullets. Others returning from a concert in Buncrana were hit within minutes of getting off the bus.
How many plastic bullets were fired in Derry from the Thursday night until
Sunday morning?
The Committee on the Administration of Justice and the Pat
Finucane Centre issued a statement on Sunday 14 July in which we said that :
"Over the past three nights several thousand plastic bullets were fired by the RUC and the Army in Derry alone."The statement continued:
"the RUC and army guns were overheating and jamming because of overuse. Many of the plastic bullets were fired at upper body level, some at point blank range. Last night the shooting was continuous and sustained from 1am until around 5am."In an interview with the Sunday Tribune (28 July) the RUC admitted that :
"up to 2500 plastic bullets were fired in Derry" [during the three nights].They admitted this was an "estimate". The spokesman went on to claim that "up to 5000 petrol bombs were thrown at police." The Pat Finucane Centre has disputed both sets of figures.(Derry Journal 23 July) Having read over 100 witness statements we now feel that the dispute is an irrelevancy. The only relevant statistic concerns injuries to human beings. According to the RUC 18 officers were injured over the weekend, some with facial injuries others with burns. Seven remained off duty as of 22 July. A conservative estimate of civilian injuries shows that over 330 people were injured over the weekend, many of them seriously. One man, Dermot McShane, lost his life.
Text of a Radio Foyle interview with a doctor at Altnagelvin following the weekend.
"They (plastic bullets) are meant to be ricocheted off the ground and then they temporarily disable the people. However in riot situations it has been seen that those situations don't exist and plastic bullets usually strike the body directly. When they do quite severe damage to the soft tissues result. They break bones, especially limb bones and if they strike the head they cause very serious head injuries, like injuries which fracture the skull bones, they fracture sinuses and also cause severe damage such as soft tissue in the eyeball......At close range a plastic bullet can be a dangerous weapon and can cause severe injury and can even cause fatal injury."