N. IRELAND: FORMER UDA MEMBER BILLY MCQUISTON INTERVIEW
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- Опубліковано 20 лип 2015
- (19 May 1998) English/Nat
The Provisional IRA thought an all-out offensive would force Britain and its troops out of the province - it did not.
Instead their bloody campaign spurred the growth of pro-British Protestant gangs some of which killed Catholics in revenge for IRA violence.
Now the prospect of peace appears to be in sight when on May 22 the people of Northern Ireland will have their chance to vote on the Stormont Agreement which could finally bring peace to the war-torn region.
APTV spoke to two men who were in the frontline of the bloodshed - once staunch enemies who now embrace the peace process.
Billy McQuiston is now a free man.
He was once a terrorist - taking part in a campaign of violence for the Pro-British Ulster Defence Association (UDA.)
He joined the Protestant paramilitary group when he was 15 - he is now 40.
Half of his adult life has been spent in prison on weapons and armed robbery charges.
The IRA have tried to kill him several times, and years on, he still has to watch his back because he is still a prime target for Republican splinter groups.
McQuiston, who now runs a community advice centre, was released from jail last October.
He wants peace.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"During the course of these Troubles, the Provisional IRA have tried to
kill me 5 times. They have tried to kill my wife and daughter. Between personal friends
and family members the people who I have lost through these Troubles runs into double
figures. The house I live in has steel doors and close-circuit television. I can only see my family maybe twice a week and there was nobody more involved in this war than I was I served 12 and a half years in prison through what I believe to be right in this war, and if I can vote yes to this, if I can live with this,I don't see how anyone else
can't live with this."
SUPER CAPTION: Billy McQuiston, Former UDA member
Martin Meehan joined the IRA when he was 21.
He quickly rose to become a commander in Belfast.
Now 53, he has spent a total of 22 years in prison.
He kidnapped a British soldier and spent 66 days on hunger strike and escaped from Crumlin Road jail in 1970.
Now a member of the IRA political wing,Sinn Fein, Meehan has renounced violence as a means to achieve his aim - the unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well I was a commander in the Irish Republican Army from the outset right through most of the conflict.In saying that I don't diminish in anyway the sacrifice and the determination of the men and women of the Irish Republican Army. They have been the cutting edge that has made us arrive at this settlement that we have achieved today. The settlement, or the Agreement as you would call it is not everything that we would desire, but as I say it is a bridgehead on the beach where we can move forward, move the
process forward to achieve our objective."
SUPER CAPTION: Martin Meehan, Sinn Fein and former IRA commander
More than three thousand people have died in the violence which has plagued Northern Ireland for nearly thirty years.
Members of the IRA who lost their lives during the so-called Troubles are remembered at this cemetery in Belfast.
They died fighting for their cause of a united Ireland - a cause that Martin Meehan now believes can be achieved through the ballot-box and not down the barrel of a gun.
It is a strategy Meehan took years to accept.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
political struggle and to me the two can't be detached."
SUPER CAPTION: Martin Meehan, Sinn Fein and former IRA Commander
SOUNDBITE: (English)
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The man in the glasses 👓 was Martin Meehan an I.R.A Commander who died in 2007.
He was a good amateur Boxer who fought a match with none other than Robert Nairac, before he was in The Army of course.
Duck on he'll there's an interesting fact
Job done Mr Mcquiston as Marty McGuiness kneels before her majesty the Queen was absolutely beautiful.
God save the King 👑
Enjoy being Irish love.....our else piss off back to Scotland where you come from
Get your loyalties king cocking sucking agenda out of Ireland
@@BelfastIsRed Your day will never come ya oddball.
@@BelfastIsRed I'm not the one kissing royal feet! That was machine gun McGuiness 🤣
@@masonboyne5074 I mean you only own 6 counties😂
And shin fein is the biggest political party of all of them so yes, are day will come
I might be wrong but if i go down the comnents one side id going to call the other this and that forever
Remove the border and it's called Derry not Londonderry.
The IRA did not negotiate a ceasefire with the UDA, UVF or the RUC. The RA brokered the internationally renowned caseation with representatives from within the highest echelon's of the British government. These clowns had nothing to do with it.
john bel-farset Loyalist were infiltration to.
Martin McGuiness kneeled to Her Majesty the Queen it was job done 👍🏾
The only reason loyalists went on a ceasefire was because republicans surrendered first.. IE no-one to defend the PUL from sectarian slaughter.
The Ira and their sympathizers were being slaughtered by the loyalists paramilitaries in the 80s and 90s it was a major factor in putting the fear into the Republican community which made them war weary so it was a major factor
@@tozen4442 Yes the republican community got a dose of what the Loyalist community received from the IRA and they didn't like it one little bit. Certainly put pressure on McGuiness and that thing Adams! That thing that cowered behind a 10 year old child at Milltown cemetery when Mad Mickey Stone went on the rampage. Anyone saying different is just full of bravado as it's a fact certain republican areas of the province cowered in fear at the thought of their door getting sledgehammered and shot dead in the Late 80s through to 96.
MCQUISTON you couldn't get a more paddy name if you tried his mother or mammy must of liked the irish.
It's a Scottish/viking name, you tit.
Scottish
@@Jacktheripper27 Scottish and Irish have some same surnames
Ross.. A nice prod surname
sat in the sauna in the falls a mill
on
times wi the big man very insightful and smart
Bit gay like
@@markestler5921Like Billy Wright and his multiple man friends aka Johnny Adair 😂
Wat wud they think of United Ireland
The ira were getting hammerd as they had so many informers within their ranks including those at the top
Sinn fein now top dog 🐕 in Northern Ireland would it have come about without the 🔫 gun go figure 🤔
Northern Ireland Protocol means 🇮🇪🤣
Still took 30 years to get a proper ceasefire. Informers are only good if the info they give the Brits are actually worth it. Yeah they killed active service units here and there but in the grand scheme of things the informers never had a real impact on the war if you think about it.
@@Irish780Sinn Fein the rainbow flag waving, mass migration loving trannies? Yeah well done getting them into power, they'll make sure the projected minority status of the ethnically Irish by 2050 will happen even sooner
@@Irish780armalite and ballot box
🇮🇪✊👍☝️💯
Well done Billy good on you. A good Prod...
+Gary Wilson
Like yourself?
+brendan w Yes
Gary Wilson
I'm sure you are. Do you study the bible and visit Church at least once a week?
Regardless, i'd love to know what sort of a Church you belong to that sees the sectarian killers and drug dealers of the UDA/UVF as ''good prods'' - if you're a ''good'' one yourself i can only assume your Church elevates such people as you do.
I suppose you attend church every week and read the bible? Oh and there is no "D" in Protestant. lol! I blame the schools.
@@donaldstewart9827 😂😂👌
Why do the Irish Republican Army!! Blame everyone but themselves!! Do onto you as you want onto others. Our bible!!
Ulster Unionists/Loyalists agreedes to Northern Ireland Protocol in 2019
Cos they are cowards!
No I don't believe they have lol
@@philmcdermott7516 cowards who fought the British army ,ruc ,and all the loyalist paramilitaries for 30 years while vastly outgunned. Okay 😅
@@liamg1706 blew up children. Hid in bushes behind a wire charge murdered innocents the list goes on 😂 stay triggered liam
Planters go home
They are home....British have been here since 1169.
@@Drifty40 ua-cam.com/video/7-b7qzxMiJs/v-deo.html
@@Crum-pe4mn
ua-cam.com/video/rYDy8qNFp8M/v-deo.html
🙄
@@Drifty40 your tunes are shite😂
@@Crum-pe4mn
🙄 👶
His nephew James bucks kids
The British don't want loyalist or unionists neither do.Scotland
The Troubles actually started with Loyalist paramilitaries from the UVF killing innocent people, a catholic and a protestant elderly lady. Then the police killed some innocent people, including a little boy named Patrick Rooney who was sleeping in his bed when he was shot in the head through a wall by police using a machine gun. So the description for this video is completely biased and WRONG. For over 20 years, the UDA, using the cover name of UFF, killed innocent people on both sides of the sectarian divide. It was until 1992 that this organization was finally outlawed. So someone answer this for me, what took so long? The people in power knew the UFF was actually the UDA.
The troubles started when catholics ethnically cleansed protestant settlers 400 years ago.
@ the UVF were killing people in the late 60s and planting bombs
Newtus,are you the full Shilling?If protestants were ethnically Cleansed as you say,why are the DUP still the major political party in the North?Don't open your mouth and let your belly rumble,because you will be called out on your outlandish bullshit.
The reality though is the UVF of 1966 was a tiny fringe sect that would never have grown into what it became if it wasn't for the violence of the Provos, same goes for the UDA. Both those gangs along with the state forces committed horrendous atrocities but the same was true of the IRA. Kingsmill, Enniskillen, Teebane, the human bomb tactic, the disappearings, all these things were every bit as bad as Bloody Sunday or the Shankill Butchers and went far beyond "defending their community". Its commonly said that Ian Paisley was the best recruiting sergeant the IRA ever had, but the reverse was every bit as true. The PIRA was the best recruiting sergeant that the UDA and UVF ever had.
And the Provisional IRA would not have taken over the movement from the Officials if not for British Agents in those said gangs shooting people dead, the human bomb tactic was under the auspices of British agent Martin McGuinness, there was massive revulsion in grassroots republicans over the proxy bombs, but there has never been anybody who took part personally in as much torture as Penny Murohy, and unfortunately there wasn't as much revulsion for his actions, they had to get the Provoss to kill him ffs
If somebody knows a crime is being commited and doesn't report that crime then thats some kind of collusion.The Catholic population knew who the IRA people were,must have known the bombers and shooters who murdered a lot of innocent protestants,the IRA people lived in nationalist areas next to ordinary catholics.By not reporting the IRA people the ordinary Catholics in loyalist eyes, were colluding and supporting the murder of protestants and therefore a legitimate target.Troubles was a tragedy,the question is did they naturally happen or was this conflict caused and planned .
Bullshit, report to who ? The secterian ruc who colluded with loyslist death squads, dont be so ignorant ffs
That is the biggest load of crap I've ever read in my life.
If that ridiculous statement is your point then you are also classing every ordinary peaceful protestant who lived within the same community as loyalist paramiltaries as legitimate targets for republicans.
The UVF, UDA,LVF, RHC didn't have the capabilities to take on the IRA so targeted innocent catholics and thats a fact.
Loyalists only killed a handful of IRA men in the 30 years of the troubles and that only happened because they were assisted by the Brits.
The IRA were busy fighting the might of the British army while your lot murdered any catholic they saw
Tiocfaidh ar la!🇮🇪🇮🇪
@@gartnait1 so you were OK with them murdering innocent catholics for no other reason other than being a catholic?
@@gartnait1 yeah maybe the best place for unionists to live in their gerrymandered state as catholics were classed as 2nd class citizens.
How did we start the sectarian war?
The UVF killed first, killed the first RUC man and planted the first bombs even before the Provisional IRA even existed.
All because yous were afraid that the nationalist population was growing and needed to be recognised.
Also you claiming every catholic as a legitimate target is a little bit sectarian don't you think?
Ireland is one country if you don't like that idea you have the freedom to move 😉
They have been saying that for decades it's boring now. Martin McGuiness kneeled down before her majesty the Queen. Game over
@@masonboyne5074 what a uneducated person you are a arm wing of the ira shook hands with the queen and u say that it was historical and helped bring peace to our island bet u never lost family through that war unless u did shut your mouth
1 country with 2 different currencies? Lol, aye no sweat
Ireland belongs to everyone in the world now, you'll be demographically replaced by the 3rd world
@@masonboyne5074ack more BS