There has been a lot of speculation in the local print media this week that a new book based on the memoirs of former senior Republican Brendan 'the Dark' Hughes (RIP) may be released in the not to distant future. Brendan was highly respected within the Republican community in Ireland and when in life he was critical of the reformist direction of Provisional Sinn Fein people sat up and listened. The PSF spin machine that usually goes into overdrive against 'dissidents' could not touch the 'Dark' in life due to his impeccable Republican antecedents.

Brendan led the first mass hungerstrike in the H-Blocks for political status in 1980 where he had been Officer Commanding the IRA prisoners. He had famously been arrested in Myrtlefield Park, Malone Road an upper middle-class area of Belfast where the IRA had a secret command centre in the 1970's. Posing as a businessman who would not have looked out of place in the area, Hughes & an elite IRA intelligence unit were able to tap into the telephone communications system of the British Army's headquarters at Theipval Barracks in Lisburn. When finally arrested at the opulent Myrtlefield Park address the well heeled neighbours were aghast that an audacious IRA nerve centre had been operating secretly right under their noses! After Hughes arrest there the RUC Special Branch made much media milage by leaking a so-called IRA 'Doomsday Plan' which was allegedly amongst the documentation discovered during the raid on the Upper Malone property, claiming that it was an IRA blueprint to take over Belfast. In reality it was a contingency plan to evacuate Republican areas if further sectarian pogroms against Catholics occurred on the scale of those committed in 1969 by pro-British loyalists and the RUC's Special Constabulary. (Pro-British loyalist 'ethnic cleansing' of Catholic areas in Belfast had caused the largest displacement of a population in Western Europe since WW2.)

Brendan was a close comrade come confidante of the present Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in the Belfast Provisionals and later when both were imprisoned in Long Kesh concentration camp where they were held in the renowned 'Cage 11.' The 'Dark's renown & respect among other Republicans was the stuff of legends including a daring successfull escape from Long Kesh where he hid inside a matress which was unwittingly carried out of the prison by a garbage truck! His involvement in the first Hungerstrike in 1980 was seen by many as being a contributory factor in his early death in February 2008.

Brendan on his eventual release from prison became critical of Sinn Fein's journey towards reformism and it's sacrificing of key Irish Republican principles in return for political 'respectability' and the patronage of the British government. Hughes is reported to have stated quite categorically that the massive sacrifice made by Republicans and indeed many of the population from all political walks of life in the North, was not worth the end result which has merely seen a slightly more Catholic version of the old Stormont devolved regime still administering British rule. He dismissed the professional politicians in SF as the 'Armani suit' brigade! It is believed that Sinn Fein leader Adams who had becoming estranged from his one time friend has a lot to fear from the Dark's memoirs from beyond the grave. When Brendan was still alive & residing in the notorious Divis Tower in West Belfast elements loyal to the Sinn Fein leadership allegedly bugged his flat in an attempt to discover what exactly would be revealed in any subsequent biography of the Dark. A series of taped interviews and transcripts that would form the genus of a book by Hughes are believed to be in the possession of academics from the University of Boston.

Perhaps most worrying for Mr Adams would be any posthumous revelations about his alleged involvement in the abduction, murder & secret burial of Jean McConville(RIP) one of the so-called 'Disappeared' in the 1970's. Mrs McConville was a mother of 10 from Divis flats who had been discovered working as a spy for the British army. She had been allegedly discovered with military transceiver devices on two seperate occasions by personnel from the IRA's 'D' Company. IRA 'D' Company mebers later executed her after she had not heeded their first warning. Because of the negative publicity that would have occurred due to the fact that Mrs Mcconville was a mother of 10 children, the IRA took the decision to bury her in secret to avoid blame. It is clear that Mrs McConville was tragically a mere pawn in British military strategy which has made frequent use of local civilians it has managed to 'turn' either through blackmail or monetary bribes. There are also suspicions that Hughes will name another hitherto unknown name to join the list of the 'disappeared.'

At the time of her disappearance `many believe that Adams was in overall control of all Provo operations that would have occurred in that area of Belfast (if not the whole of Belfast) and the leadership of Sinn Fein would fear any revelations that may emerge from a strongly rumoured Hughes memoir based biography. Old comrades of the 'Dark' have confirmed that leading Provisional Sinn Fein figures have visited his family trying to discover any details of the interviews he gave to the Boston academics or local journalists. It has been strongly hinted that acclaimed writer and Dublin based journalist Ed Moloney may have been Hughes choice as a biographer.(Other rumours hint at another hitherto unknown writer.) Moloney's most highly acclaimed work to date 'A Secret History of the IRA' caused uproar within the Republican community and the political media with it's revelations of Adam's machiavellian strategy within the Republican Movement. Among the allegations Moloney makes in his 'Secret History' is that the Adamsite faction within the Provisionals deliberately sacrificed more militant volunteers to SAS ambushes such as Loughall in furtherance of the reformist strategy.

One thing is certain, a book based on the Dark's memoirs would be 'dynamite' and if any prospective publishers were minded to damage Sinn Fein they would publish just before the forthcoming British general election. Even in death Brendan Hughes is proving to be the conscience of the grassroots Republican community pointing an accusatory finger at who he described in life as being the 'tiocfaidh Armani brigade!' There is no doubt that Adams and the Provisional leadership will be searching very thoroughly for any drafts or transcripts that may exist to get a strategic 'preview' ahead of any subsequent publication. Lets hope the University of Boston has a good safe..........

 

© Iskra 04/11/09  http://iskras-blog.blogspot.com/